In the Russian port of Ust-Luga in the Leningrad region, two explosions occurred on the tanker Eco Wizard.
The Russian Ministry of Transport reported this.
Russian tanker carrying ammonia exploded: what is known
According to the Russian department, the explosions occurred during the loading of ammonia at the port terminal.
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After the detonation, the tanker rolled onto its port side and began to sink. Damage to the hull caused ammonia to leak from the vessel's tanks.
The Russian Transport Ministry acknowledged “a minor leak due to an incident during loading,” although the scale of the contamination could be much greater.
According to official data from Russian authorities, twenty-three crew members were evacuated from the tanker; there were allegedly no casualties among the sailors.
The terminal's emergency services are currently dealing with the consequences of the incident, and further loading of cargo has been stopped.
According to Radio Liberty, this is already the fifth such incident involving tankers calling at Russian ports.
The Russian side plans to carry out diving operations to assess damage to the ship's hull.
What is known about the tanker Eco Wizard
Eco Wizard is a modern LPG tanker built for the transportation of liquefied gas, approximately 180 m long and approximately 29 m wide.
This tanker has specialized tanks with deep well pump systems and high level of safety.
Its capacity is about 30,000 tons of cargo.
The vessel's high energy efficiency class allows for economical fuel consumption, which is especially important on long-distance routes.
Let us recall that in order to overcome the shadow fleet of the Russian Federation, Germany introduced additional inspection of tankers.
Russia's shadow fleet includes oil tankers, some of which are old, use dangerous shipping methods and are used to evade sanctions, the German government says.
