By Andrius Sytas
TALLINN (Reuters) -Russia detained a Greek-owned oil tanker on Sunday after it left an Estonian Baltic Sea port, the Estonian Foreign Ministry said, adding it had alerted NATO allies to the incident.
The Liberia-flagged ship Green Admire was leaving Sillamae port using a designated navigation channel that crosses Russian territorial waters, the ministry said in a statement.
“This is definitely connected to the fact that we have started to harass Russia’s shadow fleet”, Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told Estonian broadcaster ERR. He also said he had informed allies of the event.
Western sanctions on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have led to a vast “shadow fleet” of tankers crossing the sea to help Moscow keep its crude oil exports flowing.
Only last week, Estonia said that Moscow had briefly sent a fighter jet over the Baltic Sea during Estonia’s attempt to stop a Russian-bound oil tanker.
The West has imposed a series of sanctions against tankers that transport Russian oil, resulting in transport by vessels typically with opaque ownership structures and without top-tier Western insurance or safety certification cover.
Baltic Sea nations are also on high alert after a string of power cable, telecom link and gas pipeline outages.
The Green Admire had departed Sillamae port on Saturday at 18:40 GMT, and on Sunday afternoon was at one point anchored near Russia’s Hogland Island, according to Marine Traffic, a website that tracks vessels.
A Greek government official said the ship had manoeuvred in Russian waters to avoid shallows and that the Russians had intercepted it and moved it to a safe place to impose a fine.
Shipping data showed the vessel’s operator was Athens-based Aegean Ship Management and one of its key insurers was listed as Norway-based Skuld. The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The ship was bound for Rotterdam with a load of Estonia’s shale oil, the Estonian Transport Administration said. The tanker with a maximum capacity of 700,000 barrels, was almost fully laden, LSEG ship tracking data showed.
The navigation channel out of Sillamae through Russian territorial waters has been set up under an agreement between Estonia, Finland and Russia to avoid shallows in the Estonian waters, the administration said.
Vessels sailing into and out of the port will now be guided through Estonian territorial waters, it added.
NATO did not immediately comment on the incident.
A Greek coast guard official said that, since the vessel was not Greek-flagged, the Greek state had no authority on it.
However, a Greek government official said Greece was aware and was monitoring the case. The official said Athens had stated its availability to assist, though no request to do so had been submitted.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas, additional reporting by Jonathan Saul, Yannis Souliotis, Renee Maltezou and Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Philippa Fletcher, Peter Graff, David Holmes and Diane Craft)
