Unidentified tankers are shipping crude oil through the Gulf of Finland after the G7 imposed a price cap of USD 60 per barrel on Russian crude oil and both the EU and Britain imposed a ban on seaborne imports of Russian crude oil, prompting Russia to increase long-distance shipments via questionable vessels.
The CFTS portal reported this, citing the Euractiv publication.
The arrival of hundreds of tankers in poor condition in the already congested Gulf of Finland has multiplied maritime and environmental safety risks, the publication wrote.
According to the publication, in the event of an accident and an oil spill, all the consequences could fall on countries like Finland and Estonia because the authorities there are unaware of whether the “ghost tankers” are adequately insured.
Lieutenant Commander Tuomas Luukkonen of the Gulf of Finland coast guard conveyed a similar message: “Our estimate is that some of those vessels have a crew that may not have sailed in the area before. That poses a risk of accident,” Luukkonen said.
Additionally, shipping companies are currently taking care of the oil shipments from Russian ports, said Ulla Tapaninen, a tenured associate professor of maritime transport at the Tallinn University of Technology.
"Many shipping companies, of which we have practically no information, have appeared in the past six months. We do not get information about the crew or the condition and the age of the vessels since they do not stop at European ports," Tapaninen said.
