Russian Emergencies Ministry head says threat of fuel oil leakage into the Black Sea persists

The threat of fuel oil leakage into the Black Sea remains. This was reported by the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Alexander Kurenkov on December 28 at a meeting of the Government Commission on liquidation of consequences of the tanker wreck in the Kerch Strait.

"In conclusion, the head of the emergency Ministry noted that there is still a threat of further leakage of fuel oil into the waters of the Black Sea from the sunken tankers and its release on the shore," - quotes his press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

In addition, Kurenkov demanded to speed up the work to eliminate the consequences of the fuel oil spill. The head of the Emergencies Ministry noted that they should continue during the holidays.

Storm bias: what could have led to the tragedy in the Kerch Strait

The design of tankers built for river transportation was not designed for a sea storm

Tankers "Volgoneft-212" and "Volgoneft-239" due to bad weather crashed in the Kerch Strait on December 15. As a result of the incident there was a spill of oil products. 27 people were evacuated from both vessels. one person died. On the instructions of the Russian President, a working group has been set up to coordinate work to eliminate the consequences of the accident with the tankers.

Kurenkov arrived in Anapa on December 26 to supervise the liquidation of fuel oil. The press service of the agency said that since the beginning of the work on the territory of Kuban more than 23.5 thousand tons of contaminated sand had been collected and removed. At the same time, a unit for pumping oil products out of tankers in distress was delivered to the region, and its testing on land began.

On the same day, the Governor of Krasnodar Region Veniamin Kondratiev asked Kurenkov for federal assistance in eliminating the fuel oil spill on the coast. In addition, the region introduced a federal level emergency situation regime (ES). On December 28, a regional emergency regime was introduced in Crimea.