Number of Baltic Sea Tankers at Anchor Drops Sharply

The number of tankers at anchor in the Baltic Sea has decreased significantly over the past week.

The Estonian Transport Administration reported this on Tuesday. According to its data, there were no incidents involving oil tankers, the ERR reported.

Compared with the beginning of April, when the number of ships at anchor reached almost 40, their number has fallen by more than half.

“This is a constantly changing indicator, but at the moment we can say that the number of these ships is 10-15,” the Head of the Shipping Management Department of the Transport Department stated.

According to him, the ships are mostly at anchor while waiting for an opportunity to enter ports in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland.

According to MarineTraffic, 13 ships were anchored near Vaindloo Island on Tuesday.

Most of them are oil tankers, with Russian ports in the Baltic Sea among their destinations.

Although ERR reported last week that a Russian warship had been spotted in the area, the Transport Department said no incidents involving tankers had been recorded.

In the second half of March, Ukraine launched powerful drone strikes on oil facilities at Russian ports in the Baltic, after which they could not receive oil tankers.

In mid-April, Russia repaired two oil berths in Ust-Luga and resumed tanker traffic in the Gulf of Finland.

At that time, the number of oil tankers operating with cargo in the Gulf of Finland returned to the level recorded before the attacks on Russian terminals.

In early April, the Swedish coast guard detained the tanker Flora 1, which is under Ukrainian sanctions for transporting Russian oil.