Tankers entering Russian ports began exploding in the Mediterranean Sea
21 February 2025 08:15
Over the past month, three oil tankers have been damaged by explosions in separate incidents in the Mediterranean Sea. What unites these explosions is that all three tankers had previously called at Russian ports, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports, citing Reuters.
These incidents are the first incidents of damage to non-military vessels caused by explosions in the central Mediterranean in decades.
The explosion caused a one-meter hole below the waterline in the hull of the Greek-operated Seajewel tanker in a port in northern Italy on Saturday, one shipping source said. A second explosion occurred 20 minutes later on the same vessel, but caused no additional damage.
Italian prosecutors have launched an investigation into the Seajewel incident, which occurred while the vessel was anchored in front of the port of Savona Vado, the Savona prosecutor told Reuters.
Another vessel operated by Thenamaris, the oil tanker Seacharm, was also damaged in an explosion off the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan in late January, two sources said.
In a third incident, the Liberian-flagged chemical tanker Grace Ferrum was damaged off the coast of Libya in February, three sources said, one of whom added that the vessel would require a salvage operation.
According to LSEG’s ship tracking data, the tanker was showing its status as “out of command” off the Libyan coast on Wednesday.
All three vessels have recently called at Russian ports, according to ship tracking data and sources.
Representatives of the shipping industry on Wednesday expressed growing concern over the incidents.
The Russian freighter Ursa Major sank in the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain in late December after an explosion in the engine room, leaving two crew members missing, the Russian Foreign Ministry said last month.
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The Shadow Fleet and the Fight Against It
According to Michelle Wiese Bockmann, principal analyst at Lloyd’s List Intelligence, an active shadow fleet carrying Iranian, Russian and Venezuelan oil, numbers about 669 tankers. Of this number, 250-300 tankers were usually engaged in the transportation of Russian oil.
The United States imposed sanctions on shadow fleet vessels at a time when Russia has reached record exports of oil products.
