EurOil: Finland seeks EU vessel to handle potential Russian dark fleet oil spills

Finland has urged the EU to invest in a standby response vessel to deal with potential oil spills in the Gulf of Finland that could be caused by Russia’s so-called dark fleet of tankers.

Russia has amassed a large fleet of older oil tankers that are sometimes not up to maritime safety standards and with opaque ownership to ship its crude to markets while circumventing sanctions. Finland’s ministry for transport said this week that, on average, 70 old tankers with a capacity to transport more than 100,000 tonnes of oil navigate through the Gulf of Finland every week. The Norwegian Coastal Administration estimates that these ships have an average age of 29 years.

These waters are particularly difficult to contend with during winter, considering that older vessels are less well equipped for ice navigation, according to Finnish authorities. What is more, these vessels often carry out ship-to-ship transfers, further raising the risk of oil spills. Spills in icy waters are more difficult and expensive to deal with than those in open waters.

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