A fire on the Tanzanian-flagged LPG tanker ‘Maestro’ in the Black Sea has stopped after one-and-a-half month, according to data provided by Russia’s Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport.
Ten crew died and another 10 are still missing and presumed dead, due to the fire which erupted on the two Tanzanian-flagged LPG tankers ‘Venice’ and ‘Maestro’, while they were transferring fuel in the Kerch Strait, Russia’s territorial waters, Black Sea, on 21 January.
The fire eventually was extinguished after 45 days. The salvage vessel ‘Spasatel Demidov’ remains on scene to monitor the wreck. The owner of the vessel is informed and response actions are awaited.
According to the Russian news agency TASS, the fire on the other vessel, ‘Candy’, stopped on 28 February.
These are the same names with two Tanzanian-flagged ships, which last year were included on a US sanctions advisory as delivering fuel to Syria, Reuters earlier reported.
In November 2018, the US Treasury Department added nine Russian and Iranian individuals and companies on its sanctions list for participating in the shipment of petroleum to Syria. Along with this, it issued an advisory note warning of the potential sanctions risk for any entities involved in such shipments which listed 35 ships, including the Maestro and Venice, as having delivered oil to Syria between 2016 and 2018.