An explosion occurred on the oil tanker Vilamoura off the coast of Libya, which was carrying about a million barrels of oil, reports Reuters citing the Greek ship operator TMS Tankers. The vessel suffered serious damage — the engine room was flooded, but no oil leaks or environmental threats were recorded, and the entire crew is safe. The causes of the incident are still unknown. The tanker is being towed to Greece for damage assessment.
As noted by Bloomberg, in April and May the vessel Vilamoura entered Russian ports twice to load Kazakh oil: on April 7 — in Ust-Luga, and at the end of May — in Novorossiysk. In both cases, the vessel, according to Bloomberg and the service Starboard, was loaded with oil of Kazakh origin.
According to the consulting company Vanguard Tech, since the beginning of the year, explosions after entering Russian ports have occurred on four other vessels. Because of this, owners have begun checking the hulls of ships for mines.