The Finnish authorities today asked the European Union to acquire a ship to deal with hydrocarbon leaks in the Baltic Sea, fearing that the leaks are coming from Russian oil tankers.

The northern European country underlined that the risk of oil spills has increased in these waters “as international sanctions have forced Russia to transport its oil on older ships with less insurance coverage”.

These second-hand tankers, sometimes with unclear ownership or no insurance cover, allow Moscow to continue exporting its oil in bulk despite Western sanctions that came into effect after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Finland has asked the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) to “initiate a tendering process for the acquisition of a spare vessel” in case of oil spills, according to a joint statement from the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Finnish Transport Agency and communications and the country’s coast guards.

All oil tankers departing from the Russian ports of Primorsk, Ust-Luga, Vysotsk and St. Petersburg follow the same route through the Gulf of Finlandwhich also rains in Estonia.

Nearly 70 of these “ghost” tankers, each carrying more than 100,000 tons of crude, sail the Gulf each week after loading at various Russian ports, including St. Petersburg.

Currently, only one of EMSA’s 14 decontamination vessels is in the Baltic Sea, in its southern part.

Finnish authorities want an additional ship “suitable to travel through the ice and adapted to the conditions of the northern parts” of this sea.

Winter heightens “the dangers” of pollution from tankers carrying Russian oil, which are not properly adapted to ice conditions, the statement said.