Azov Sea News

Russia's seaborne oil product exports fell 4.2% in March from the previous month to 10.178 million metric tons due to unplanned maintenance at refineries and a uel export ban, data from industry sources and Reuters calculations showed.Russia's daily offline primary oil refining capacity has jumped by around a third in March to 4.079 million metric tons from February due to drone attacks, Reuters calculations based on data from industry sources showed.Last month, a fire broke out after a Ukrainian drone attack at the Norsi refinery…

Several tankers loaded with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) have been unable to cross under Russia's Crimea bridge due to security restrictions, traders said on Friday, prompting suppliers to use other routes out of Russia.The 12-mile (19 km) road and rail bridge, which was personally opened by President Vladimir Putin in 2018, was bombed in October in an attack Russia said was carried out by Ukraine. The bridge spans the Kerch Strait linking the Black Sea with the smaller Azov sea. Kyiv never claimed responsibility for the bombing of the bridge on the morning of Oct. 8, a day after Putin's 70th birthday. Russia's Federal Security Service said the attack was organized by Ukrainian military intelligence.

Commercial cargo shipments on Russia’s Azovo-Don inland waterways have slumped in 2022 to the lowest level on record amid Western sanctions and traffic suspensions on vessels in the Azov sea, Russian Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport (Rosmorrechflot) said.The Azovo-Don waterways are used during the summer period as an alternative to railways for the export of cargoes, including oil products from Russian refineries via the ports of the Black and Azov Seas.Rosmorrechflot…

Commercial cargo shipments on Russia's Azovo-Don inland waterways have slumped in 2022 to the lowest level on record amid Western sanctions and traffic suspensions on vessels in the Azov sea, Russian Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport (Rosmorrechflot) said. The Azovo-Don waterways are used during the summer period as an alternative to railways for the export of cargoes, including oil products from Russian refineries via the ports of the Black and Azov Seas. Rosmorrechflot said the main reason for the decrease in the volume of cargo shipments was the restriction on ship movement through the Sea of Azov, as well as the sanctions imposed against Russian domestic companies and certain types of cargo.

Russia said on Thursday it was facilitating the export of grain and oilseeds from Ukraine through Russian-held transit points on the Azov Sea, without explaining who was providing the foodstuffs for export.Ukraine, like Russia one of the world's biggest exporters of grains and oilseeds, has accused Russia of stealing grain from territories in Ukraine that its forces have seized.Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko rejected the allegation in an interview with Reuters…

A ship has entered the Ukrainian port of Mariupol for the first time since Russia completed its capture of the city to load metal and ship it east to Russia, TASS news agency reported on Saturday, in a move that Kyiv decried as looting.A spokesperson for the port told TASS that the vessel would be loading 2,700 tonnes of metal before traveling 160 km (100 miles) east to the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on Monday.The spokesperson did not say where the metal being shipped had been…

Russia is ready to provide a humanitarian corridor for vessels carrying food to leave Ukraine, in return for the lifting of some sanctions, the Interfax news agency cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko as saying on Wednesday.Ukraine's Black Sea ports have been blocked since Russia sent thousands of troops into Ukraine on February 24 and more than 20 million tonnes of grain are stuck in silos in the country.Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global…

Ukraine has formally closed its four Black and Azov sea ports, which Russian forces have captured, the Ukrainian agriculture ministry said on Monday.The Azov Sea ports of Mariupol, Berdiansk, and Skadovsk and the Black Sea port of Kherson were closed "until the restoration of control", the ministry said in a statement."The adoption of this measure is caused by the impossibility of servicing ships and passengers, carrying out cargo, transport and other related economic activities…

Russia's lead warship in the Black Sea sank on Thursday, Russia's defense ministry announced, after what Ukraine said was a missile strike and Russia described as an explosion of ammunition on board.The loss of the Moskva, the flagship in Russia's Black Sea fleet, occurred as it was being towed to port in stormy weather, Russian news agencies quoted the defense ministry as saying. The sinking was a fresh blow to Moscow's military campaign as it readied for new assaults in east…

All Ukrainian its ports on the Black Sea and Azov Sea remain temporarily closed to ships seeking to enter or exit, Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry said on Monday.Soon after Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, Ukraine’s military suspended commercial shipping at its ports, stoking fear of supply disruption from leading grain and oilseeds exporters.(Reuters - Reporting by Natalia Zinets, Writing by Alessandra Prentice, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

Insurers have raised the cost of providing cover for merchant ships through the Black Sea, adding to soaring rates to transport goods through the region for vessels still willing to sail after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.Ship owners pay annual war-risk insurance cover as well as an additional "breach" premium when entering high-risk areas. These separate premiums are calculated according to the value of the ship, or hull, for a seven-day period.Ship insurers have quoted the additional premium rate for seven days at anywhere between 1% to 2% and up to 5% of insurance costs…

Turkey cannot stop Russian warships accessing the Black Sea via its straits, as Ukraine has requested, due to a clause in an international pact that allows vessels to return to their home base, the Turkish foreign minister said on Friday.Ukraine has appealed to Turkey to block Russian warships from passing through the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits which lead to the Black Sea, after Moscow on Thursday launched a full-blown assault on Ukraine from land, air, and sea. Russian forces landed at Ukraine's Black and Azov Sea ports as part of the invasion.

Ukraine's military has suspended commercial shipping at its ports after Russian forces invaded the country, an adviser to the Ukrainian president's chief of staff said, stoking fear of supply disruption from the leading grain and oilseeds exporters.Russia earlier suspended the movement of commercial vessels in the Azov Sea until further notice, but kept Russian ports in the Black Sea open for navigation, its officials and five grain industry sources said on Thursday.Ukraine is a major exporter of corn (maize), much of it destined for China and the European Union.

Ukraine criticized Russian naval exercises near its southern coast on Thursday, saying the presence of warships were part of a "hybrid war" that had made navigation in the Black Sea and Azov Sea virtually impossible.In a statement by the foreign ministry, Ukraine said Russia's actions "show blatant disregard for the rules and principles of international law" and that Kyiv would work together with partner countries to prepare a response."Such aggressive actions by the Russian Federation as part of its hybrid war against Ukraine are unacceptable," the statement said.

Russia said on Wednesday it had fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of a British warship to chase it out of waters Moscow claims in the Black Sea off the coast of the Crimea peninsula.Britain rejected Russia’s account of the incident, saying it believed any shots fired were a pre-announced Russian “gunnery exercise”, and that no bombs had been dropped. But it confirmed that its destroyer, HMS Defender, had sailed through what it described as waters belonging to Ukraine.The…

“Freedom” – the absence of subjection to foreign domination or despotic governmentIt has been decades since international relations in the world order dictated true competition for sea control, sea lines of communication, access to world markets, and diplomatic partnerships. However, it is becoming increasingly alarming that nations such as Iran, China and Russia seek to accumulate/consolidate power and re-define international maritime norms, potentially at the peril of diplomatic…

Ten crew members have been found dead and 14 have been rescued after two ships caught fire in the Kerch Strait near Crimea, Russia's transport ministry said on Monday, with a rescue operation still underway.The ministry said earlier on Monday that crew members were jumping into the sea to escape the blaze, which probably broke out during a ship-to-ship fuel transhipment.Both ships were under the Tanzanian flag - Candy (Venice) and Maestro - and had a combined total of 31 crew members. Of them, 16 were Turkish citizens and 15 from India, it said.An industry source told Reuters there were stormy conditions in the sea when the incident happened.The Kerch Strait between Russian-annexed Crimea and southern Russia controls access from the Black Sea to the Azov Sea…

Russia-Ukraine naval clash followed shipping holdups Ships bound for Ukrainian ports say they are held up while those bound for Russian ports go through.When the Island Bay cargo ship arrived from Beirut at the Kerch Strait, gateway to the Azov Sea, it sailed into a perfect storm of geopolitics and bad weather.The following day, Russia opened fire on three Ukrainian naval ships, impounded them and detained their sailors, some of them wounded. It then blocked the strait by putting a tanker underneath a new bridge it has built linking the Russian mainland to the Crimean peninsula it annexed from Ukraine in 2014.While the world digested the implications of the Nov.

Vessel sales for August 2015 (as of September 1) as prepared by Shipping Intelligence, Inc., New York.

Russian grain exports have picked up again after the decision to impose official export duties reduced the informal curbs that had all but stopped sales abroad, SovEcon agriculture consultancy said on Saturday. Russia, the world's fourth largest wheat exporter, introduced informal grain export controls last week to try and cool domestic wheat prices as exports hit record levels thanks to the slump in the rouble. Russia's main wheat buyers are Turkey, Iran and Egypt, which is very vulnerable to any disruptions in supply. Officials in Moscow have assured Egypt that deals to import 120,000 tonnes of wheat for delivery in January will be met, the state Al-Ahram newspaper quoted Egypt's supplies minister, Khaled Hanafi, as saying on Friday.

For as long as men have traveled and traded by water-routes, ice has been a nemesis for ships and their hulls. And with good reason since, on average, sea ice covers about 25 million square kilometers (9,652,553 square miles) of the planet—amounting to about two-and-a-half times the area of Canada. To wage ice battle, even in the earliest days of polar exploration, sailors used strengthened ships to ply icy waters. Naturally, these ships were originally wooden and based on existing designs but reinforced…

The vessel Tarantella features a variety of outstanding and unique characteristics representing an advanced concept of chemical tanker. Compared to earlier Trogir built tankers (Trogir and Azov Sea), the hull of Tarantella embodies a number of upgrading features such as: Execution of bulkheads, bottom and lower stools to facilitate drainage of the cargo /washing water to the practical minimum as described with "str 0.05" class notation; Introduction of trapezoidal corrugation (instead of rectangular) to enable 96 percent of tank surfaces to be exposed to direct jet from washing machines and therefore qualify for ETC notation; Strengthening of structure to suit for wider range of IMO 2 chemicals…