After hours of towing, a German maritime emergency team brought the oil tanker Eventin to safety off a Baltic seaport. The vessel, part of Russia’s aging “shadow fleet,” suffered a full blackout late Friday.

The stricken oil tanker Eventin, which had run adrift in the Baltic Sea north of the German island of Rügen, arrived at a safe position off the coast of the harbor of the German port Sassnitz early on Sunday.

The tanker — with around 99,000 tons of oil and said to be part of Russia’s shadow fleet of vessels used to skirt Western sanctions — is to remain in place until a decision is reached on how to proceed.

What we know about the operation

The Eventin is being held in position by two tugboats in a roadstead around five kilometers (around three miles) off the coast, said a spokesman for the maritime emergency command. A roadstead is an anchorage where ships can wait safely at anchor outside a port.

It is still unclear when and where the 274-meter-long (about 900-foot) tanker with 24 crew members will be repaired.

The ship suffered a total system failure, a so-called blackout, in the night heading into Friday and drifted without control on the Baltic Sea for hours.

Rescue teams managed to set up tow connections to the tanker on Friday afternoon.

A specially trained team of experts was lowered onto the stricken vessel from a helicopter. They were tasked with ensuring that the ship’s load was evenly distributed among the tugs.

A spokeswoman for the emergency command said the ship was watertight and that there was no danger to the environment. Several tugs towed the ship from early Saturday morning, initially towards a sea area northeast of Rügen.

However, with numerous wind turbines in the sea near the original destination, the plan was changed to a position further around the island near Sassnitz.

Already showing technical defects

The environmental organization Greenpeace has the “Eventin” on its list of the Russian shadow fleet. It said the almost 19-year-old ship, which sails under the Panamanian flag, had technical defects even before the blackout and was inadequately insured.

According to the organization, this meant that in the event of a serious accident such as an oil spill, the taxpayer would likely have to bear the costs.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Friday criticized Russia’s reliance on rundown tankers in its “shadow fleet,” warning it was a threat to European security.

“By ruthlessly deploying a fleet of rusty tankers, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is not only circumventing the sanctions but is also willingly accepting that tourism on the Baltic Sea will come to a standstill” in the event of an accident, Baerbock said, describing the tankers as “dilapidated.”

rc/ab (dpa, AFP)