TASS reports that in the morning of 11 June an explosion occurred on board of an oil tanker owned by the Volga Shipping Company with Turkmen oil on board en route from “Alaja” port.
As a result of the explosion, two sailors have been killed in an explosion and two more have been admitted to hospital with burns.
RIA Novosti, with reference to the public affairs office of the Emergencies Ministry, reports that the blast occurred in the tanker’s engine room when oil products were being pumped.
On 7 June Dagestan’s head Vladimir Vasilyev said that in 2019 the volume of oil transfer through Makhachkala’s port is scheduled to be doubled.
In 2018 about 2,5 million tons of various products, including 2 million tons of oil, were transferred through Makhachkala.
Let us recall that in January 2019 Turkmenistan changed the route of oil exports via the Caspian Sea.
Oil had been previously shipped by tankers via Baku with Azerbaijan-based trader SOCAR being responsible for its exports, but Turkmenistan recently concluded the agreement with the Swiss company Vitol, which transfers oil via Makhachkala.
According to Reuters, Vitol proposed more favourable rates to Turkmenistan.
This, however, resulted in the fact that the supplies of Turkmen oil through the Caspian Sea halved as Azerbaijan-based SOCAR refused to provide its tankers to competitors.
Oil transfer from Turkmenistan via Dagestan had been previously carried out but was ceased in 2016. Turkmenistan was discontent with the oil losses, which reached over 2% in each batch during oil pumping from tankers to reservoirs.