Malta-flagged ship in Baltic Sea collision

A tanker carrying 27,000 tonnes of crude oil collided with a cargo vessel on Monday due to icy conditions in the Baltic Sea but no spills were reported, the Finnish Maritime Administration said yesterday.

The Maltese-registered tanker Yevgeniy Titov was not damaged and the Gibraltar-flagged cargo ship Bremer Saturn suffered only minor damages.

"It's because of the ice conditions in the Baltic Sea," said Markku Mylly, responsible for ice breaking at the maritime authority.

He said the oil tanker, travelling behind the cargo ship some 25 kilometres off the coast of Finland, collided when the Bremer Saturn got stuck in the ice.

Finland has repeatedly warned of icy sea conditions this winter and the Finnish Maritime Administration fears tankers transporting oil to and from Russian ports do not have sufficient bow protection against icy conditions.

"Many vessels transporting oil this time of the year are not equipped for these conditions. The warning is being ignored," he said.

An empty Greek tanker from the port of Muuga in Estonia got stuck in the pack ice east of Helsinki on Friday and has since only been able to move 20 kilometres with the help of ice breakers. Another attempt to move the vessel was to be made yesterday, Mylly said.

Finland has unsuccessfully lobbied Russian authorities to prevent oil tankers, some filled with more than 100,000 tonnes of crude oil, from travelling past the coast of Finland if they do not have sufficient bow protection against ice conditions.

The number of crude oil transports through the Gulf of Finland has risen sharply since the contruction of the Russian port of Primorsk near the Finnish border in 2001.

Separately, a strike threat by 7,000 employees at Finnish passenger and cargo vessels was postponed by two weeks on Monday, according to the labour ministry. Employees and unions will continue negotiating a common wage deal for employees working on international routes.