The Swedish Coast Guard has announced the release of the Flora 1 oil tanker, believed to be part of a Russian shadow fleet, which it believes is the source of a 12-kilometer oil spill off the island of Gotland.
Reuters reports this.
The Flora 1 tanker was detained off the southern coast of Sweden and released the same day, Friday. According to MarineTraffic, the vessel left the Russian port of Primorsk and its destination remains unknown.
According to Coast Guard officials, the oil spill will likely not reach the shore.
The Swedish prosecutor's office said it had questioned the crew and that two people had been reported on suspicion of environmental crimes, but they had not been detained.
“The spill occurred in Sweden's economic zone, which means that the investigative measures we can take are limited. We have conducted the necessary interviews and will not take any coercive measures in connection with this suspected crime,” the prosecutor's office said.
The agency said it had launched an investigation into suspected environmental crimes. It said it understood the vessel was on the EU sanctions list, adding that its flag status was unclear.
“The Russian shadow fleet, consisting of old, poorly insured tankers that evade sanctions, poses a significant threat to security and the environment. The government is taking the incident seriously, although this time it is not a major oil spill,” Swedish Minister of Civil Defense Carl-Oskar Bolin commented on the Flora 1 situation in X.
On April 3, the Swedish Coast Guard stopped the tanker Flora 1, suspected of causing an oil spill near the island of Gotland. The Coast Guard aircraft discovered the oil spill on April 2, at which time it was more than 12 km across. The Flora 1 vessel departed from a port in the Gulf of Finland, and its final destination is unknown. In addition, the tanker has an uncertain legal status.