Lifting of tankers in the Kerch Strait will be carried out with the help of cofferdams

The tankers sunk in the Kerch Strait will be lifted using cofferdams after pumping out the fuel oil. This was announced on March 21 by Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Saveliev at a meeting of the government commission for the elimination of the fuel oil spill.

"The solution we chose was not just given to us, we searched together with science, with the scientific and technical community, with experts, with practitioners who had experience lifting such sunken parts, and we all came to the decision that we would build engineering structures called cofferdams," — he declared.

Saveliev explained that the cofferdam is a structure that, with the help of a floating dock, will approach the sunken parts and cover them. Technological hatches and openings for the subsequent pumping of fuel oil will be installed in the structure.

Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit added that the cofferdam creation process will be carried out in four stages. First, divers will cut off the protruding elements of the wrecks, such as superstructures, railings and masts. Then they will mark the housings for further work and install flanges and connections for heating and removing fuel oil.

At the next stage, specialists will erect guides to protect the sunken parts during the cofferdams' immersion and provide access to the ships' hulls through hatches.

"Having access to the hulls of ships through hatches and technological openings, we will ensure connection to the tanks, and we will already carry out work on heating and pumping out fuel oil," Starovoit said.

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