The volume of contaminated soil after the tanker accident may increase up to 200 thousand tons.

The volume of contaminated soil after the wreck of fuel oil tankers in the Kerch Strait may increase to 200 thousand tons. This was reported by the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation Alexander Kozlov at a meeting on Monday, December 23.

"According to those forecasts of fuel oil, which will be carried ashore, the volume of contaminated soil may increase to about 200 thousand tons," he said in Anapa at a meeting on the elimination of the consequences of the emergency.

Kozlov specified that as of yesterday more than 14 thousand tons of sand contaminated with oil products were removed from the surf zone, where the collection was carried out.

According to his information, the group formed to eliminate the consequences of the crash of two tankers is now more than 10 thousand people. There are 366 units of equipment, including 270 units of special equipment.

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The night before, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that in the Krasnodar region more than 39.7 km of coastline was cleared of oil products. In the port of Anapa, 500 square meters of water area was additionally cleaned. In Crimea, 60.3 tons of contaminated sand and soil were collected and 50.6 tons were removed. Minor oil slicks were also found at eight sites in Leninsky District and Kerch.

The tankers Volgoneft-212 andVolgoneft-239crashed in the Kerch Strait on December 15 due to bad weather. As a result of the incident there was a spill of oil products. 27 people were evacuated from both vessels. It was specified that one person died.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, on the instructions of Russian President Vladimir Putin, created a working group to coordinate work to eliminate the consequences of the accident with tankers in the Kerch Strait.