As of Oct 15, m/t Grigoriy Bugrov is in the same position and condition, half-sank in position 44 28N 48 12E (37 nm NE of Chechen Island, near the entrance to Volga – Caspian sea Canal). There is almost no leak, divers didn’t find any holes in hull, and that means hole is in bottom, in engine room area – hole is sealed by the ground. Salvage operation is under full swim, with all available salvage vessels and equipment dispatched to the distressed vessel. Rescuers and authorities are working out hourly time-table of the salvage. They don’t give the details of salvage plan, but seemingly, there is a good chance of refloating the vessel.
Now to the cause of the distress, that’s very interesting. Tanker collided with unknown and uncharted submerged object, stranding off course and recommended route into Russian Navy training firing zone, said Russian Ministry of Transport. Russian Navy meanwhile, keeps silence and doesn’t comment Ministry of Transport press-release. If there was an exercise going on, Navy should warn by issuing special navigational warning, close area for all shipping, monitor and guard it. But nobody said anything about exercises and issuing restrictions. Usually navies have designated areas for exercises, open for navigation when there are no exercises running, i.e. most of the time. Usually responsible navies clean up areas of their exercises, leaving behind no navigational hazards. Well, this is not the case when speaking about Russian Navy, a few weeks ago their irresponsible behaviour and negligence nearly finished in nuclear disaster, when fishing vessel struck ballistic missile nuclear submarine, moored on buoys, without proper security and navigational warnings given. See report at http://www.odin.tc/news/read.asp?articleID=30
Pics of sunken m/t Grigoriy Bugrov from Portnews site.
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Tanker Grigoriy Bugrov with 6000 mt of oil sank in Caspian sea
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Tanker Grigoriy Bugrov at 1420 Moscow time Oct 13 2011 collided in Caspian sea with unknown and uncharted underwater object and got a hole in engine room area portside, in position 44 28N 48 12E (37 nm NE of Chechen Island). In a short time tanker capsized and sank on 8 meters depth with 27 deg portside list, half of the vessel being on the surface. Crew 14 evacuated, no injures. Tanker is loaded with 6000 mt of heavy oil, but no leak reported. Tanker has double hull notwithstanding date of construction, because the vessel is of sea-river type, in former Soviet Union river-sea type tankers were built with double hull from the very beginning of their invention in late 60-th.
Tanker Grigoriy Bugrov (ex Volgoneft-244) IMO 8848628, dwt 6611, built 1974, flag Russia, manager Oil Marine Group.