Finland scares of oil spill from Russia, creates permanent oil booms

Finland is laying down measures to protect its Baltic Sea coast from the high risk of an oil spill from Russia’s shadow fleet, installing a permanent oil boom fastening system, a Finnish foundation informed on Wednesday.

The Nordic country has repeatedly expressed fears of a major Baltic Sea oil spill from a tanker belonging to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet.

Rings will be bolted into the bedrock of islands in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland archipelago, allowing oil containment booms to be attached quickly to the event of an oil spill, the John Nurminen Foundation, which specialises in protecting the Baltic Sea, asserted in their statement.

Such booms would be able to contain the oil before it reaches shore or sensitive ecosystems.

The foundation is launching the project as “Bolt it for the Baltic Sea!” together with Finnish authorities.

“The risk of an environmental disaster is currently high in the Gulf of Finland due to anomalies detected in the navigation systems of the merchant navy,” Jukka Pekka Lumilahti, head of rescue operations at the Gulf of Finland coast guard, said.

“The anchor points installed in the archipelago significantly speed up pollution control operations,” he added.

The frequent scrambling of GPS signals in the region makes it more difficult for ships to navigate, while shadow fleet ships are known to switch off their AIS tracking systems often.

According to the foundation, recent drone attacks by Ukraine on the Russian oil ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga, located at the far end of the Gulf of Finland, have increased the risk of an oil spill.

A collision or grounding of a shadow-fleet tanker could result in thousands of tonnes of crude oil spilling into the water, with fatal consequences for the fragile ecosystems.