Overview

• La Vilamoura’s engine room flooded after the blast off Libya following a million-barrel loading operation, but no injuries or pollution were reported.
• The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker, which called at Ust-Luga and Novorossijsk to load Kazakh crude, was stabilized at sea and towed to Greece for forensic analysis.
• Italian authorities have launched a terrorism probe, noting gaps in AIS transponder data and investigating traces of explosive devices on the hull.
• This incident is the fifth similar explosion this year targeting ships that previously docked at Russian oil terminals, following attacks on the Seacharm, Seajewel, Grace Ferrum and Koala.
• Investigators are exploring whether foreign operatives, possibly Ukrainian saboteurs, carried out deliberate attacks on a covert ‘ghost fleet’ smuggling sanctioned oil.