Rescuers were not found at the attacked tanker with Russian oil: oil goes to sea

Due to bad weather, rescuers left the area of the tanker Caroline Bezengi, which ran aground off the coast of Oman after an attack while passing by Yemen. Oil continues to flow into the Arabian Sea.

"There have been no updated press releases or responses to requests for information from the consulting company Ambrey, which is tasked with overseeing the rescue work to evacuate Caroline Bezengi," the Maritime Executive reports. According to him, the tanker is still stranded on the rocks at the southwestern tip of the island of Jazirat al-Qibliya, one of the Hallaniyat Islands off the coast of Dhofar in southwestern Oman.

As the newspaper notes, satellite images from August 22 indicate that the tanker sank deeper into the water, possibly with some deformation of the hull, but the volume of leaking oil did not increase significantly.

"On the day of the satellite flyby, the leaking oil slick moved further east, into the northern part of the Arabian Sea," writes Maritime Executive.

They noted that the pictures do not show a single vessel associated with rescue operations, either at the sunken vessel or in the Halliniyat harbor, which Ambrey planned to use as a base camp.

"At the moment, rescuers hope that Caroline Bezengi will remain intact without a significant increase in oil leakage due to the sunken vessel and that the weather improvement by the end of the Harif monsoon season will occur soon enough so that the rescue operation can begin in full force," the Maritime Executive believes.

As EADaily reported, rescue work on the tanker Caroline Bezengi cannot begin due to the weather. The vessel is under sanctions and transported 800 thousand barrels of Russian oil from Novorossiysk. The 274-meter tanker first reported problems off the coast of Yemen in June — after, according to maritime sources, an explosion occurred.

Neither side claimed responsibility for the attack on the ship, which was traveling from Russia to India, Reuters noted.

It is known that until 2020 the tanker Caroline Bezengi was called "SKF Altai" and directly belonged to Sovcomflot and its structures. According to Equasis, the vessel is now registered and managed by companies registered in China.