MV Volgoneft-248
MV Volgoneft-248 was a Project 1577 Volgoneft oil tanker that was owned and operated by Volgotanker. She was built in the Soviet Union in 1975. A storm in the Sea of Marmara in 1999 broke her in two. Her forward section sank, and her aft section ran aground. Her bow was later raised and scrapped. Much of her cargo of oil was spilt, causing a major pollution incident. That pollution, its effect, and the clean-up work, have become the subject of a number of academic studies in Turkey.
Description
Project 1577 is a Soviet design of tanker that was intended for "": operating on the canals and large navigable rivers of European Russia; and also short-sea shipping in favourable sea conditions, with waves no more than high. The Volgograd shipyard in Volgograd built many of them. Volgoneft-248 was built as yard number 945, and completed in 1975. Her length was ; her beam ; and her depth. Her tonnages were and. When laden with a full cargo of of kerosene, her draught was, and she displaced. She had two fixed-pitch screws, each driven by a 8NVD48A diesel engine rated at. Her twin engines gave her a speed of. She also had twin rudders. She had berths for 22 or 23 crew.Volgoneft-248 was registered in Astrakhan, on the Volga river. Her IMO number was 8728000, and her call sign was UFVP.
Loss
In December 1999, Volgoneft-248 left Burgas in Bulgaria carrying of heavy fuel oil. On 27 December she passed through the Bosphorus, and anchored off Ambarlı oil terminal to await a berth to discharge her cargo. On 29 December, a southerly gale broke her anchor chain, and broke the ship in two about off the coast. Her forward section sank in about of water, and the gale drove her aft section ashore at Küçükçekmece, in the Menekşe district of Istanbul. Where the ship split in two, her numbers 5 and 6 cargo tanks were ruptured. This spilt about of her oil cargo into the sea, causing a major pollution incident. The lighter fraction of the oil came ashore, where it polluted of coast. The layer of oil was thick, and from wide. Work to remove it took more than four months. The heavier fraction of the oil sank and settled on the seabed, where it remains a contaminant and an environmental threat.In the aft section, aground at Küçükçekmece, her numbers 7 and 8 cargo tanks contained about of oil. These leaked oil into the sea until divers sealed the holes at the forward end. In the sunken forward section were cargo tanks 1 to 4, containing of oil. Most of the oil in the forward section was recovered in February 2000, but the remainder continued to leak into the sea until that summer. The total spillage was about 4,365 tonnes of oil. Eventually, a floating crane raised the sunken forward section, and took it to Aliağa.