Crude oil tanker Koala (IMO: 9234642, 84598 gt, built 2003) in position lat 59 42 10N, long 028 25 35E, at the berth in Ust-Luga, Russia, with about 130,000 tonnes of fuel oil loaded on board the tanker, and while preparing to sail, three powerful explosions thundered in the engine room at around 0200 hrs on 9th Feb 2025.
There were 24 crew on board the vessel (among them four Russians, eight Georgian citizens and 12 Indonesians). The crew managed to evacuate the vessel, but the vessel’s engine room started taking water and the vessel had run aground with its stern.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations installed booms around the vessel. At the same time, according to preliminary data, there was no leakage of oil products into the water. No causality has been reported so far.
Russia’s Marine and River Transport Agency and Finland, both are carefully monitoring the vessel. It is reported that cargo tanks are intact and investigation is in progress.
Vessel registered owner is said to be Dahlia International Company registered in Liberia, being managed by Twin Blue Shipping Incorporation, Turkey and the vessel is registered with Antigua & Barbuda.