Oil spill at Russian marine terminal in Black Sea could be 400,000 times larger than owners originally claimed, scientists say

An oil spill in the Black Sea near the Russian port town of Novorossiysk could be 400,000 times larger than initially claimed by the owner of the marine terminal where it occurred, Russian scientists revealed on Wednesday.

According to the press service of the Space Research Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences, satellite imagery shows that Saturday’s oil spill from the Greek tanker Minerva Symphony has contaminated an area of 80 square kilometers, despite the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) claiming that 12 cubic meters of oil had spread over just 200 square meters.

“The spill is much larger than declared, as the area of oil pollution was almost 80 square kilometers at the time of radar imagery,” the scientists’ report says. “The oil slick on August 8 was reached 19 kilometers from the shore into the open sea.”

If the imagery is correct, the spill is 400 times larger than was originally claimed.

According to the CPC, the accident happened at the Yuzhnaya Ozereevka sea terminal, 6km off the coast. When loading oil onto the Greek tanker, some was accidentally released into the sea.

According to Svetlana Radionova, the head of Russia’s environmental watchdog Rosprirodnadzor, the actions of CPC employees were negligent. Law enforcement agencies have also got involved, with the Investigative Committee initiating a criminal case for marine environment pollution.

The CPC is a Kazah-based consortium that transports oil from Kazakhstan’s Tengiz Field to the Black Sea.

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