Russia-bound oil tanker is ‘hit by a drone within the Black Sea’
Another Russia-bound oil tanker has been hit by a suspected drone in the Black Sea.
The Palau-flagged oil tanker Elbus was reportedly seen with smoke pouring its deck some 30 miles off the coast of Turkey on Thursday.
Reports say the tanker issued a distress call and then ‘abruptly changed direction’ to head for Turkish waters.
The tanker was towed by Turkish coastguard teams to and taken to Inebolu port for damage inspection.
The 899ft vessel is initially believed to have been hit by a Ukrainian aerial drone.
The vessel was headed to the Russian port of Novorossiysk, presumably to load crude oil.
No crew injuries were reported.
The incident comes just a day after the US seized the Russian-linked Marinera tanker in the North Atlantic over sanctions on Venezuela.
A Russia-bound oil tanker – the Elbus – has been hit by a suspected drone in the Black Sea
The Elbus tanker, built in 2005, was not sanctioned by the West.
Flagged in Palau, it is reportedly registered to a Hong Kong company.
Turkish broadcaster NTV reported: ‘The Elbus oil tanker, sailing approximately 30 miles off the coast of Abana district in Kastamonu, was hit in its upper sections during a drone attack.
‘Following a distress call from the ship, which is believed to have been the target of a drone attack, Coast Guard Command teams were dispatched to the area.’
The Elbus is the fifth tanker to be hit in the Black Sea since November, apparently part of Ukraine’s bid to hamper Russia’s bid to earn money from oil exports to fund its illegal war.
The incident at sea involving a Russia-bound ship comes just a day after the US seized two Venezuela-linked oil tankers in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, one sailing under Russia’s flag, as part of President Donald Trump’s aggressive push to dictate oil flows in the Americas and force Venezuela’s socialist government to become an ally.
A weeks-long chase across the Atlantic ended on Wednesday morning when the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. military special forces, bearing a judicial seizure warrant, apprehended the Marinera crude oil tanker, which had refused to be boarded last month before switching to Russia’s flag, officials said.
With a Russian submarine and vessels nearby, the seizure risked more confrontation with Russia, which has condemned US actions over Venezuela and is already at odds with the West due to the war in Ukraine.
The Kremlin did not respond to a request for comment on what is a public holiday in Russia.
‘The incident comes just a day after the US seized the Russian-linked Marinera tanker in the North Atlantic over sanctions on Venezuela
‘It was a fake Russian oil tanker,’ U.S. Vice President JD Vance said in an interview on Fox News. ‘They basically tried to pretend to be a Russian oil tanker in an effort to avoid the sanctions regime.’
Earlier on Wednesday, the U.S. Coast Guard also intercepted a tanker carrying Venezuelan oil, the Panama-flagged M Sophia, near the northeast coast of South America, the US officials said, in the fourth seizure in recent weeks.
The tanker was fully loaded, according to records of Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA.
The Marinera, formerly known as the Bella-1, was empty of oil, but the U.S. says it and the M Sophia belong to a ‘shadow fleet’ of tankers used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.
