Environmental disaster as Russian tanker sinks

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: The Guardian Unlimited

· 1,300 tonnes oil flows into Crimea strait after storm
· Habitat may take 10 years to recover say experts

Russia and Ukraine were last night facing a catastrophe after a tanker carrying 4,000 tonnes of oil broke up yesterday in heavy seas off the Crimean peninsula, splitting in half and creating what one senior official termed an "environmental disaster".

The Russian ship broke up in a storm and high waves yesterday near the port of Kavkaz in the narrow Kerch strait south of the Sea of Azov, in one of the worst ecological disasters in the region for years.

Article continues
Two freighters carrying sulphur also sank near the Russian port about 750 miles south of Moscow, and several other ships ran aground. At least two sailors died. One person was still missing yesterday. Operations to rescue the crews of all three ships had begun, officials said.

The oil tanker, the Volganeft-139, which had been loaded with about 4,000 tonnes (1.3m gallons) of fuel oil, was stranded about three miles from the shore. Stormy weather was preventing emergency workers from collecting the spilled oil. At least 1,300 tonnes, and probably more, had leaked into the sea, officials said

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2209423,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12

[Mojorabbit]

1. This is awful! n/t

[krispos42]

2. 1,300 metric tons..

is 1,300,000 kilograms. Crude oil is about 3 kg to a gallon, give or take, so that's about 450,000 gallons or about 100,000 barrels.

Yikes!

[Make7]

11. I don't think that's quite right...

Residual fuel oil averages about 3.55 kg/gal. So 1,300 tonnes is about 366,000 gallons, or about 8,700 barrels. That's still an awful lot of fuel oil!

- Make7

[krispos42]

15. Oh, jeez, too many zeros in my barrels number

<smack forhead>

Well, water is 8 pounds per gallon, gasoline is about pounds per gallon, so I took a guess at about 7 pounds per gallon for crude, a little over three kilos.

But I divided the gallons wrong to get barrels. Big-time.

Thanks for catching it.

[Xenotime]

3. This will send oil prices over $100

[Make7]

12. Not neccesarily....

... the total load of the ship represents about 0.03% of worldwide oil consumption. I'm not sure what effect, if any, this will have on oil prices.

- Make7

[defendandprotect]

4. Alarming . . ..

But, so many of these things were predictable ---

there is human era --- and we now have Global Warming ----

"broke up in heavy seas" ---

Imagine the potential for so many disasters that we haven't been giving any thought to ---

plus, human error, of course ---

and misbehavior/ExxonValdez --

[mike_c]

5. oh holy shit....

I'm speechless. This is awful. Beyond words. Have we no shame?

[regnaD kciN]

6. Why should we feel "shame"...?????

:wtf:

[Xipe Totec]

18. We Humans, not we atavistic Americans nt

[Audio_Al]

7. Anyone else having problems with this UK link? I get a different story now.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

8. I just fixed that

Try it again.

[Audio_Al]

10. OK. What with this story and the spill in San Francisco, we'll be having fish with oil for decades.

Drat this human race.

[Audio_Al]

9. Query deleted. Sad stories this weekend about our beautiful planet...

slowly being destroyed by... everything, it seems.

Respectfully,

Audio Al

[Up2Late]

13. Wow, that sucks.

They say the Crimea is to the Black Sea what the French and Italian Riviera coast is the the Mediterranean. Kiss all that good bye.:(

[aquart]

14. Oh, shit.

[bigworld]

16. Where's the blame on the Soviets?

Wow, the first time I've read about a disaster in Russia without the article referring to the failure of Soviet infrastructure.

[Warren Stupidity]

19. Bad as that was when there was a soviet union

I'm fairly sure that little has been done to maintain or improve what was left after the collapse. Blaming the soviet era is lame at this point in time. Hey but they got them their global elites just like any other Corporate Kleptocracy of the New Gilded Age, so who's complaining?

[The Stranger]

17. And you know that when the Russians say it is an "environmental disaster," it is likely to be one

motherfucker of an environmental disaster. Given their history with the environment, we had better take their word on this one.

Great way to start the week.