Three oil tankers have been damaged by explosions in the past month in separate incidents in the Mediterranean Sea.
This was reported to Reuters by sources in the shipping and security industry.
These incidents are the first cases of explosion damage to non-military vessels to occur in the central Mediterranean in recent decades.
An explosion ripped a meter-long hole below the waterline in the hull of the Greek oil tanker “Seajewel” in a port in northern Italy on February 15, one of the sources said. A second explosion occurred 20 minutes later on the same vessel, but caused no further damage.
Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into the incident that occurred with the “Seajewel” while the ship was anchored off the port of Savona-Vado, the Savona city prosecutor told Reuters.
Another vessel operated by “Thenamaris”, the oil tanker “Seacharm”, was also damaged in an explosion near the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan in late January, two sources said.
In a third incident in February, the Liberian-flagged chemical and food tanker “Grace Ferrum” was damaged off the coast of Libya, and the vessel is in need of salvage, sources said.
All three ships have recently called at Russian ports, according to ship tracking data and sources.
- On December 23, the Russian ship “Ursa Major”, which was supplying cargo to Russian troops in Syria, sank in the Mediterranean Sea. According to media reports, an explosion occurred in the shipʼs engine room.
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