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Russian ship that sank off Spanish coast was exploded in 'act of terrorism,' RIA points out owner
A Russian freight ship that ran into difficulty on Monday in the Mediterranean Sea and later on sank was rocked by a series of 3 surges in an act of terrorism, state news firm RIA cited the vessel's owner as saying on Wednesday. Russia's Foreign Ministry stated on Tuesday that the Ursa. Significant, built in 2009, sank after an explosion ripped through. its engine space and that 2 of its 16 crew were missing. RIA cited Oboronlogistika, the ship's ultimate owner and a. business that becomes part of the Russian Defence Ministry's military. building operations, as stating on Wednesday that the vessel. had actually been targeted in a terrorist act. It cited Oboronlogistika as stating that the ship's making it through. 14 team members had actually reported that 3 successive explosions. on the ship's starboard side had detonated at 1350 Moscow time. ( 1050 GMT) in the vessel's aft on Dec. 23. The ship had then started to sharply list as it was. undoubtedly taking in water, RIA cited Oboronlogistika as saying. The ship was not overloaded, it added. It was carrying two giant port cranes on its deck with. their loading buckets, two heavy hatch covers for ice-breaking. vessels, 129 empty containers, and a 20-foot container with. roof devices, RIA said. Oboronlogistika had said that the ship had actually been en path. to the Russian far eastern port of Vladivostok. Oboronlogistika and SK-Yug, a company LSEG lists as part of. the group and the ship's direct owner and operator, declined to. talk about the sinking at the time. Both entities were positioned. under sanctions by the United States in 2022 for their ties to. Russia's military as was the Ursa Major itself. Spain's Maritime Rescue Service stated it had received a. call for help from the Ursa Major on Monday when it was. located about 57 miles off the coast of Almeira. Two vessels and a helicopter had been sent to the scene. and the 14 making it through team members taken to the Spanish port of. Cartagena. LSEG ship tracking information reveals the vessel departed from. the Russian port of St. Petersburg on Dec. 11 and was last seen. sending a signal at 2204 GMT on Monday in between Algeria and Spain. where it sank. On leaving St. Petersburg it had actually suggested that its next. port of call was the Russian port of Vladivostok, not the Syrian. port of Tartous which it has called at in the past.
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Finland examines outage of undersea power link to Estonia, Finnish PM says
Finland's Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said on Wednesday authorities in his nation were investigating an undersea power cable television outage on a line connecting Finland and Estonia. An unplanned break in service on the Estlink 2 interconnector occurred at 1026 GMT, operator Fingrid stated in a. declaration on the Nordpool regulatory website, lowering its. offered capability to 358 megawatts (MW) from a set up. capacity of 1,016 MW. Even at Christmas the authorities are on standby to. examine the matter, Orpo stated in a post on X. The interruption did not affect Finland's electrical energy. supply, he included. Authorities in the region have been on high alert for. potential acts of sabotage following a string of failures of. power cable televisions, gas pipelines and telecom links in the Baltic Sea. in recent years, although subsea cable televisions are likewise subject to. technical breakdowns and blackouts brought on by accidents. An investigation into the occurrence has been started,. Fingrid control room manager Arto Pahki stated in a declaration. At the time of the interruption the electricity had been flowing. in the instructions from Finland to Estonia at a rate of 658 MW,. Fingrid said.
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Russian area declares emergency situation as Black Sea oil spill fallout widens
Authorities in Russia's. southern Krasnodar area on Wednesday declared a regionwide. emergency situation, stating that oil was still cleaning up on the coastline. 10 days after two aging tankers ran into problem. The oil is from the tankers which were hit by a storm on. Dec. 15. Among the vessels divided in half, while the other ran. aground. The pollution, which has actually coated sandy beaches at and around. Anapa, a popular summertime resort, has triggered major problems for. seabirds and everything from dolphins to cetaceans and over. 10,000 people have been trying to clear it up. Veniamin Kondratiev, guv of the Krasnodar area, stated. in a statement that he had actually chosen to state a region-wide. emergency situation due to the fact that oil was still polluting the shoreline in the. Anapa and Temryuk districts. He had formerly declared a less severe municipal-level. emergency. Initially, according to the calculations of scientists and. professionals, the main mass of fuel oil must have remained at. the bottom of the Black Sea, which would have enabled it to be. collected in the water, Kondratiev wrote on the Telegram. messaging app. However the weather condition determines its own conditions, the air warms. up and oil items rise to the top. As a result, they are being. carried to our beaches. Independently, a crisis centre focused on the clean-up said. that the bow of among the tankers - the Volgoneft-239 - had. been discovered undersea and that divers would inspect whether. there was any leakage of oil items from it as soon as weather condition. conditions allowed. In overall, more than 256 square kilometres of the coastal. area have actually been surveyed and 25 lots of oil-water sludge. gathered, the exact same centre said.
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Serbian trainees march in Belgrade to protest train station disaster
Hundreds of university trainees rallied in Belgrade on Wednesday to oppose the policies of President Aleksandar Vucic and his ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), whom they blame for a railway catastrophe last month in which 15 individuals died. The concrete awning of the just recently refurbished roofing of the train station in the northern city of Novi Sad caved in on Nov. 1, killing 14 and hurting 3. Among the injured passed away later on. Students at universities in Belgrade and across Serbia have been opposing given that, demanding publication of documents pertinent to the station renovation and the prosecution of those responsible for the catastrophe. After a 15-minute quiet vigil to honor the victims of the Novi Sad accident, trainees marched to the State District attorney's head office in Belgrade to deliver 1,000 identical letters of protest to the workplace of Zagorka Dolovac, the chief state district attorney. Students require that you defend the law and justice, with no political or corrupt malpractices, the letter stated. Students, opposition and civic groups blame Dolovac and prosecutors for the slow investigation into the train station catastrophe, something they deny. Trainees brought banners portraying a bloodied hand, which they say symbolises the federal government's responsibility for the awning collapse. These (protests) are the way (to win), the one and just method, stated Zaklina, 22, a law student. Opposition parties and civic groups have actually likewise required to the streets, blaming the accident in Novi Sad on substandard construction resulting from corruption and nepotism. The ruling coalition rejects this and Vucic has stated those accountable for the station collapse need to be held to account.
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Russia's domestic LPG costs halve following EU embargo
Domestic rates of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in Russia cut in half in December from the previous month due to an influx of the fuel, exports of which have been suppressed by European sanctions, Reuters computations showed. The European Union's sanctions against Russia's LPG took result on Dec. 20. The limitations were proposed in 2015 by Poland, one of Russia's largest LPG importers. LPG, or propane and butane, is primarily used as fuel for vehicles, heating and to produce other petrochemicals. A sharp rise of LPG products to the domestic market caused a. collapse in wholesale rates in Russia to around 14,000 roubles. ($ 140) per metric load in December from 28,000 roubles at the end. of November, according to Reuters computations based upon trading. sources and information from a regional commodity exchange. Exports are more profitable and Russia could earn approximately $230. per lot from products to Poland. Still, some types of Russian LPG are eligible for exports,. however represent around a fifth of total LPG, which Russia utilized. to export. Russia has increased LPG exports in recent months to China,. Mongolia, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, according to industry. sources. Traders said that Russia's exports to China have. potential for additional development. Russia also exports LPG to Afghanistan, though the market. participants say the materials are constrained by issues with. payments. We would be all set to provide it there, however our Afghan. partners are prepared to pay only in cash. And after that what should. we do with this 'money'? Extra concerns and problems may. develop while bringing it back to the Russian Federation, a. trader said.
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China's first batch of 2025 fuel export quota flat vs a year ago
China has provided 19 million metric lots of export quotas for gas, diesel and air travel fuel under the batch of allowances for 2025, a level that is steady versus a year previously, several traders and a. Chinese industry consultancy stated on Wednesday. China manages its refined oil exports via a strict quota. system, utilizing exports as a tool to balance and ensure the. domestic market is adequately supplied. State-owned oil companies Sinopec and CNPC, the crucial receivers of. these quotas, were given a combined 13.34-million-ton. allowances, or 70% out of the 19 million loads, according to. traders and consultancy JLC. On the other hand, personal refiner Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp was. granted 1.67 million lots of export quotas in this batch. Independently, China has actually also launched 8 million tons of. low-sulfur marine fuel export quotas for the first concern of. 2025, also flat compared to a year earlier, traders and JLC said. Of the total, around 90% were set aside to Sinopec and CNPC. For the very first 11 months of 2024, China's exports of improved. oil items - consisting of mostly fuel, diesel, air travel fuel. and marine bunker - totalled 54.4 million heaps, down 6.3% versus. the matching period of 2023.
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Putin expresses acknowledgements to Azerbaijan's president over death in airplane crash, Kremlin says
Russian President Vladimir Putin has revealed his condolences to Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, over the loss of life on Wednesday in a. aircraft crash involving an Azerbaijan Airlines airplane, Kremlin. spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. An Embraer guest airplane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia. crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday with. 62 passengers and five team on board, Kazakh authorities. revealed, saying that 28 people had actually made it through. Unfortunately, Azerbaijan's President Aliyev was forced to. leave St Petersburg (where he had a summit). Putin has currently. called him and expressed his condolences in connection with the. crash of the Azerbaijani aircraft in Aktau, the Kremlin's Peskov. said. We deeply sympathise with those who lost their family members. and pals in this airplane crash and wish a speedy recovery to. all those who managed to endure..
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Passenger airplane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashes in Kazakhstan with numerous feared dead
An Embraer guest plane flying from Azerbaijan to Russia crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday with 67 guests and 5 crew on board, Kazakh authorities revealed, stating 12 individuals had actually survived. Unverified video of the crash showed the aircraft, which was run by Azerbaijan Airlines, breaking into flames as it struck the ground and thick black smoke then increasing. The Central Asian nation's emergency situations ministry stated in a. statement that fire services had actually put out the blaze and that. survivors were being dealt with at a close-by healthcare facility. Azerbaijan Airlines stated the Embraer 190 airplane, with. flight number J2-8243, had actually been flying from Baku to Grozny, the. capital of Russia's Chechnya, but had actually been forced to make an. emergency situation landing around 3 km (1.8 miles) from the Kazakh. city of Aktau. Russian news firms said the aircraft had been rerouted due. to fog in Grozny. Authorities in Kazakhstan stated they had actually started looking into. different possible versions of what had taken place, consisting of a. technical problem, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.
Russian pipeline gas and LNG exports to Europe up 18-20% in 2024, Novak states
Total exports of Russian gas to European countries have actually up until now been 1820% higher this year than in 2023, the Interfax news agency mentioned Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak as saying on Wednesday.
In January-November, materials of both pipeline gas and liquefied gas (LNG) surpassed 50 billion cubic metres, Novak was priced quote as stating.
Regardless of all the declarations and sanctions pressure due to the fact that gas is an extremely eco-friendly item it remains in demand. And Russian gas is the most cost-effective, both in regards to logistics and the rate, Novak was mentioned as stating.
The increase was from a very low base in 2023, when Russian pipeline gas supplies to Europe plummeted by 55.6% to 28.3 bcm as Moscow's relations with the West greatly deteriorated due to the Ukraine dispute.
Products are expected to recuperate to around 32 bcm this year, according to Reuters calculations.
Russian pipeline gas exports to Europe face severe obstacles.
A five-year gas transit deal in between Moscow and Kyiv that has actually seen Russian exports flow through Ukraine regardless of the war ends at the end of the year and Ukraine has stated it will not. renew the arrangement.
Around half of Russian gas to Europe streams via the. Ukrainian route. The rest is supplied through the TurkStream. pipeline on the bed of the Black Sea.
Products of Russia's sea-borne super cool LNG have been. growing however with Europe taking around a half of such. exports.
The EU has no impending plans to stop buying Russian LNG,. however has said it will try to wean itself off Russian gas by 2027. thanks to rising exports from Norway, the United States and. Qatar.
(source: Reuters)