A loaded oil tanker that lost its ability to maneuver in the Baltic Sea near the German island of Rügen was towed to the harbor of the town of Sassnitz.
The large tanker Eventin, loaded with 99,000 tons of oil, was being held in place about five kilometers from the coast by two tugboats on Sunday.
The ship will remain there until a decision is made on the next steps, said a spokesman for the German Central Command for Maritime Emergencies (CCME). The container is waterproof and does not pose a threat to the environment, the CCME said.
The Eventin, built in 2006 and sailing under the Panamanian flag, was en route from the Russian port of Ust-Luga to Egypt's Port Said, according to vessel tracking platform Vesselfinder.
The vessel is part of Russia's so-called “shadow fleet” used to export oil despite heavy sanctions on the country, according to a list of Russian-linked vessels sent by the environmental advocacy group Greenpeace together.
The European Union and Britain, among others, have imposed sanctions on Russia's oil industry in response to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Ships in the “shadow fleet” are often outdated and in poor operational condition.
The Eventin suffered engine failure on Friday and was drifting in the Baltic Sea before being secured, according to CCME. The cause of the engine failure remained unclear at first.
A view of the unmanned oil tanker “Eventin” off the coast of the island of Ruegen. The oil tanker, which flies the flag of Panama, drifted for several hours in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Ruegen, unable to move – the German emergency services recovered the vessel in the afternoon. Stefan Sauer/dpa
