Half of the fuel oil was pumped out of the Volgoneft-239 tanker

Morspassluzhba specialists pumped out a little more than 50% of all fuel oil from the tanks of the wrecked tanker "Volgoneft-239" sitting aground near Cape Panagia in the Krasnodar Territory. This was reported in the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation on November 22.

"As of 14:00 specialists of Morspassluzhba pumped out from the stern of the tanker 727 tons of fuel oil, which is a little more than 50% of all cargo on board," the ministry said in a Telegram-channel message.

They said that the day before oil products were removed from the first tank (there are four of them on the ship), and then began heating the second, and by the morning of this day the temperature of fuel oil reached a suitable level for constant pumping. Bitumen trucks have already made 12 trips.

Heating of the oil product is carried out by means of a ship boiler. At the same time heating and maintenance of the required temperature is done on different tanks one by one - if heat is directed to all tanks at the same time, the overall heating rate will decrease. During the alternation of stages check bitumen trucks. This is necessary to exclude their breakdown.

The Ministry of Transport added that all this work is being carried out around the clock, it is planned to finish by the end of January.

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On the eve, January 21, the Ministry said that for smooth pumping of fuel oil from the wrecked tanker it is necessary to warm up the oil product to +45 degrees. Bitumen trucks, in which the cargo of "Volgoneft-239" is taken out, are equipped with sealed tanks, which also have a heating system. Eight vehicles are involved in the fuel oil removal.

The next day in the Krasnodar region, Crimea and Sevastopol found new emissions of fuel oil. In particular, the petroleum product appeared along 8.5 km of the coastline of the Azov Sea near the tract of Kuchugury in the Kuban, recalls "Gazeta.Ru".

Tankers "Volgoneft-212" and "Volgoneft-239" due to bad weather crashed in the Kerch Strait on December 15, 2024. The incident resulted in a spill of oil products. 27 people were evacuated from both vessels, one person died. On the instructions of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a working group was set up to coordinate work to eliminate the consequences of the emergency.

Later, on January 3, an oil slick was discovered in Sevastopol at the entrance to Balaklava Bay. The next day, it was reported that the fuel oil was moving northward along the Crimean coast, and Sevastopol declared a state of emergency of regional character.

In addition, due to the identified fuel oil stains, a municipal emergency threat regime was introduced in the Chornomorsky district in the west of Crimea.