Terms of full pumping of fuel oil from the sunken tanker in the Kerch Strait have been announced

The fuel oil in the wrecked tanker Volgoneft-239 is planned to be removed by the end of January, the vessel's bunding is being completed. This was reported by the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation in its Telegram channel on January 15.

It indicated that on that day the progress of works going on at Cape Panagia was checked by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev and the head of the ministry Roman Starovoit.

"Specialists have finished building a temporary road to the wreck site and are completing the hull bunding - the arrangement of an embankment around the stern, which will protect it from storms and make it possible to start pumping out fuel oil from the tanks. It will be pumped out within two weeks, the work will be completed by the end of January," the ministry said in a statement citing Starovoit.

The collection of oil products that leaked out of the ship into the water continues. At the stern and shoreline, fuel oil is held back by booms, it is collected manually and with the help of a barge. The length of the booms around Volgoneft-239 has reached 2140 meters. At the same time, 1236 tons of oil-containing mixture have already been removed from the stern, and sealed gondola cars will be used for its transportation.

There are two sites in Krasnodar region, where the collected fuel oil will be utilized according to all ecological and technical requirements. By the end of the day on January 15, the first batch of oil product will be sent there.

In addition, Morspassluzhba specialists monitor the water area of the Kerch Strait and the Black Sea in search of pollution. The found areas are cleaned manually or treated with sorbent.

Earlier in the day "Izvestia" showed the work of EMERCOM specialists who are laying a protective wall around the tanker. In addition, the access technical road to the stern of the emergency vessel was built within a day on the instructions of the head of the Ministry Alexander Kurenkov.

The tankers Volgoneft-212 andVolgoneft-239crashed in the Kerch Strait on December 15, 2024 due to bad weather. 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 the work to eliminate the consequences of the emergency.

January 2, the press service of the Russian Ministry of Transport said that 2.4 thousand tons of oil products had fallen into the Black Sea after the crash of the tankers. Later, on January 3, an oil slick was found in Sevastopol at the entrance to Balaklava Bay. The next day, the fuel oil moved northward along the Crimean coast, and Sevastopol declared a state of emergency of regional character.

Later, on January 11, in the Black Sea region of Crimea the emergency threat regime of a municipal nature was introduced due to the identified fuel oil stains.