Two oil tankers exploded almost simultaneously off the Turkish coast in the Black Sea on 28 November, the Turkish Maritime Administration reports.
The empty tanker Kairos, sailing under the flag of Gambia and heading to the port of Novorossiysk in Russia, "received a message about a fire due to external influence" 28 miles from the coast and began to sink after the explosion.
Türkiye's Ministry of Transport clarified that the 274-meter tanker Kairos, carrying 25 people on board and traveling from Egypt to Russia, transmitted a message about an explosion and fire in the Black Sea.
Rescue boats, tugboats, and an emergency rescue vessel were immediately dispatched to the scene. All 25 people on board were rescued. The fire on board continues, Turkish authorities later specified.
Within an hour of the first incident, the Maritime Administration reported that a second tanker, Virat, "was attacked" in the Black Sea approximately 35 nautical miles off the Turkish coast.
The condition of all 20 crew members on board is satisfactory, though heavy smoke was detected in the engine room.
Kairos is a Suezmax-type tanker sanctioned by the United Kingdom and the EU. Its previous voyage was from Novorossiysk to India with Urals crude, Bloomberg writes, citing vessel tracking data. The explosion occurred as the vessel was returning to Novorossiysk for loading.
The tanker Virat, under sanctions from the US and EU for transporting Russian oil, has been idle in the western Black Sea for most of the year—after being added to the American sanctions list on January 10, the agency notes.
In September, The New York Times reported that Russia's "shadow fleet" numbered about 940 tankers, representing 17% of the entire global oil tanker fleet. On 20 November, Bloomberg wrote that the EU is considering new sanctions against Russia's "shadow fleet."
