Yahoo News 14 Jul 09;
MOSCOW (AFP) – Russian authorities were scrambling Tuesday to contain a major oil spill on the Volga River after a barge ran aground when its captain fell asleep.
The barge spilled two tonnes of oil products into Europe's longest river when it ran aground early Monday, creating a 12-kilometre (7.5 mile) slick, the emergency situations ministry said.
"It was early morning and the captain fell asleep," Russian television said.
Some 140 people and 40 equipment units, including a helicopter, have been involved in the operation to contain the slick, the ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
A resident from the town of Oktyabrsk in the Samara region in central Russia complained that the spill has prevented locals from swimming.
"We drove up and took a look. Indeed, you can't swim," television cited Sergei Kazakov as saying.
The barge contained a total of 190 tonnes of oil products.
The captain only contacted the emergency situations ministry an hour and a half after the incident took place, the television report said. The ministry did not say whether wildlife had been affected.
Fuel oil spills in Volga River, no impact on ships
Reuters 13 Jul 09;
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A barge ran aground spilling 190 tonnes of fuel oil into the Volga River on Monday, but the incident has not disrupted traffic, a duty officer at Russia's Emergencies Ministry said.
He said by telephone the accident occurred in Samara region in central Volga. The 3,000-tonne barge belongs to Sartanker, a branch of Volgatanker shipping company.
"The cleanup of the slick ... is underway," he said.
In summer some Russian refineries opt to supply fuel oil to sea ports by river-class barges, which offer lower tariffs than railroad.
During the navigation period, Russia exports over 1.0 million tonnes of fuel oil per month to northwestern Europe through the ports of St Petersburg, Vysotsk and from floating storage facilities.
Floating storage facilities, which are usually fixed in May, are used as collecting points for oil delivered by river tankers from Volga through the Volgobalt canal and the Neva River for further reloading to export tankers.
(Reporting by Eugenia Pandova, writing by Gleb Gorodyankin, Editing by Peter Blackburn)
