The Antigua and Barbadua flagged oil tanker Koala, carrying 130,000 tons of fuel oil, was reportedly in danger of sinking following as many as three explosions in the engine room in the early hours of Sunday while docked in the Ust-Luga port in Russia’s Leningrad region according to reports on the Baza and Fontanka SPB Online Telegram channels.
The tanker had a 24-man crew that included four Russian, eight Georgian and 12 Indonesian citizens. Russia’s Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport – Rosmorrechflot – said there were no casualties and although the crew was forced to evacuate, the blast did not cause “a spill of the cargo or a leak of oil products,” and there was no risk of the ship sinking. As a precaution Russia’s Emergencies Ministry staff installed booms around the ship.
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The statement added that “The appropriate agencies are investigating the incident.”
According to the regional governor of Leningrad, Alexandr Drozdenko, the explosions were a “man-made incident” that occurred during engine startup. Other accounts suggested there had been an “external impact” that caused partial flooding to the engine room.
The incident is eerily similar to the incident that led to the sinking of the “Ursa Major” cargo ship owned by Russia’s Oboronlogistics state-owned corporation in the Mediterranean in December – which pro-Kremlin media suggested was caused by a surface or underwater drone attack.
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In January, Ukraine’s security services attacked the Ust-Luga fuel terminal with long-range drones which it said Russia uses to export oil and gas using its “shadow fleet.”
Finland, which is across the Bay of Finland from Leningrad, was not taking Rosmorrechflot’s assurances at face value. The Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo stated on X that Finland was monitoring developments closely and has reinforced its oil spill response capabilities. The Finnish Coast Guard also confirmed that it was monitoring the situation.
Their reticence to trust these official statements was likely affected by what many consider to be the failure of Russia to protect the Black Sea after two Russian tankers sank in the Kerch Strait in December, causing widespread environmental damage.
The Koala seems to be an archetypal example of a Russian “shadow fleet” vessel, although it is not one of the 180 tankers designated by the US as being used to avoid Western sanctions. According to vesselfinder.com the vessel is at least 22 years old, well past the normal retirement age for a tanker and has changed its country of registration four times in the past year. It is Turkish-owned and managed by a Cypriot company – Suezmax – with its record of safety inspections being incomplete.
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