An ecological disaster occurred on the evening of June 12 as a result of a collision of two tankers near the village of Alekseevsky. On one of the ships, a container with gasoline was damaged. culprit fled the scene.
The collision involved two similar ships. A tanker of the TR-900 project, which the local press calls “Erofey Khabarov”, received a hole in the fuel tank. All the details of the incident are yet to be established by the investigation. However, the governor of the Irkutsk region Igor Kobzev claims: the captain of the “Erofey Khabarov” was drunk and instead of him an assistant was in the wheelhouse. The less experienced commander apparently lost control.
Lost hour
It is known that a TR-900 carrying 832 tons of gasoline crashed into a TR-901 tanker. The 901st was formally under repair, but, as it is now becoming obvious, it was on the port roads, or, more simply, it stood almost across the river. “Erofey Khabarov” could hook him, maneuvering along a winding channel. According to one version, the team intended to moor in the port, but at the time of the maneuver, a strong wind came up and simply blew one ship onto another. As a result, the TR-900 received a hole in one of the gasoline containers. Its design capacity is approximately 140 tons.
A video shot from the TR-901 cabin was distributed on social networks. It shows that the TR-900 hooked the bow of a fellow tanker with its aft part, on which huge fuel tanks are just installed. The course of the ships ran at an obtuse angle. “Erofey Khabarov” walked along the river, and the 901st stood stern to the shore and bow to the fairway. As a result of the impact, the TR-900 tank received several holes. It can be seen how the contents are whipped from them with good pressure. If it really was the 92nd gasoline, then the fire did not happen by sheer luck.
How much fuel spilled out at the same time is not really clear. The estimate of local authorities is 60-90 tons. “The owner of the vessel reported the accident too late, the information delay was more than an hour. This affected the scale of the incident and the response of the rescue units.”– the head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for the Irkutsk Region told reporters Vyacheslav Fedoseenko. According to him, “the owner, who was obliged to take measures to eliminate the consequences of the accident, withdrew himself”. It seems that at that hour the crew of the tanker still tried to hide the consequences of what happened on their own. There is information that the sailors poured sorbents into the water and installed booms around the ship.
However, the authorities of the region were not satisfied with the efforts of the crew. The next day, a state of emergency was declared in the Irkutsk region due to the pollution of the Lena. It is noteworthy that the governor of the region, Igor Kobzev, himself is active in promoting the environmental theme. He mentioned the situation more than once in his telegram blog. And he even announced the excess of the MPC for oil products in Lena, without waiting for the official conclusion of Rospotrebnadzor. At the same time, one must understand that the accident occurred not far from the place where Lena leaves the Irkutsk region and carries her fast waters further along Yakutia. At the same time, the Sakha authorities, on the contrary, are trying to calm the population. There are reports in the local press that they say 90% of the spilled gasoline will simply evaporate in a couple of days.
There is no reliable information about the use of booms on the river. If they are installed, it is unlikely for a long time, since the river is navigable.
Clash of competitors
The different attitude of the authorities of the region to what happened can be understood if you look at the situation from the point of view of money. The spilled gasoline TR-900 belongs to the Lena United River Shipping Company (LORP). The company, which owns three hundred vessels, calls itself the flagship of the river transport of Yakutia. Now information about the founders of the company in public registers is hidden. However, there was information on the Web about the house, that about half of the shares are controlled by the Sakha government, the rest is scattered among minority shareholders, the most influential of which is the head of the company Sergey Larionov. By the way, he has been present in the republican parliament for several convocations in a row and is now leading an election campaign. LORP has a multi-billion dollar revenue and is quite a solvent entity for paying environmental compensation to the budget of the Irkutsk region.
The situation is peppered by the fact that TR-901 belongs to a competing structure from the Irkutsk region. Judging by the open registers, its shipowner is Alekseevskaya EW Fleet. (EW – repair and maintenance base). The accident occurred near the port of Alekseevsky, just in the patrimony of electronic warfare. In Soviet times, these enterprises were part of a single river infrastructure, and now EW is engaged not only in repairs, but also in transportation. Behind her is an entrepreneur Oleg Khatuntsev. He was also known in Moscow as the rector of the TURO Institute of International Business (the university, by the way, showed no signs of life after the start of the pandemic).
The Yakutsk LORP and the Irkutsk EW are fighting for the transportation market in the Lena basin. The key logistics point here is the port of Osetrovo, in the Irkutsk region. It is here that the transshipment of goods from railway cars takes place. Further north, throughout Yakutia and to Kolyma, they go by water. Among the customers, such structures as Alrosa, Sakhaneftegazsbyt, OJSC Surgutneftegaz and other large companies were noticed.
Whether the collision of ships will develop into a redistribution of the market is not yet clear. The latest news is this: Governor Igor Kobzev said that the TR-900 tanker left the Irkutsk region, despite the fact that the investigation into the collision episode continues. A criminal case has been initiated under Part 1 of Article 247 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (transportation of radioactive, bacteriological, chemical substances and waste in violation of established rules), Part 1 of Article 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of requirements in the field of transport security).
Reference Gusts of wind have repeatedly caused accidents in ports. Last spring, residents of Tolyatino saw a combat submarine drifting along the Zhiguli Sea from the embankment. Submarine B-307 came here in tow from St. Petersburg to become a museum exhibit and was frozen into an ice floe. The spring wind tore the ship away from the ice and began to drive along the reservoir. And in the fall of 2020, as a result of a hurricane, a floating dock in Vladivostok crashed into warships.
As for major oil spills, they also often happen near ports and water bodies. On August 7, 2021, near Novorossiysk (Krasnodar Territory) occurred release oil from the Greek tanker Minerva Symphony. The spill occurred while loading from a tanker berth owned by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC). The area of pollution was 80 square kilometers.
On May 29, 2020, one of the diesel fuel storage tanks at CHPP-3 in Norilsk was damaged due to a sharp subsidence of the foundation supports, as a result, about 21,000 tons of fuel spilled out.
On March 14, 2020, in Nakhodka (Primorsky Krai), an explosion occurred at the warehouse of the boiler house of Primteploenergo KSUE. As a result of the incident, about 2.5 thousand tons of fuel oil were spilled, and an emergency regime was introduced.
Gusts of wind have repeatedly caused accidents in ports. Last spring, residents of Tolyatino saw a combat submarine drifting along the Zhiguli Sea from the embankment. Submarine B-307 came here in tow from St. Petersburg to become a museum exhibit and was frozen into an ice floe. The spring wind tore the ship away from the ice and began to drive along the reservoir. And in the fall of 2020, as a result of a hurricane, a floating dock in Vladivostok crashed into warships.
As for major oil spills, they also often happen near ports and water bodies. On August 7, 2021, near Novorossiysk (Krasnodar Territory) occurred release oil from the Greek tanker Minerva Symphony. The spill occurred while loading from a tanker berth owned by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC). The area of pollution was 80 square kilometers.
On May 29, 2020, one of the diesel fuel storage tanks at CHPP-3 in Norilsk was damaged due to a sharp subsidence of the foundation supports, as a result, about 21,000 tons of fuel spilled out.
On March 14, 2020, in Nakhodka (Primorsky Krai), an explosion occurred at the warehouse of the boiler house of Primteploenergo KSUE. As a result of the incident, about 2.5 thousand tons of fuel oil were spilled, and an emergency regime was introduced.
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