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29,500 square meters of Kerch Strait cleared of oil after tanker incident

The Krasnodar Region anti-crisis center said that 460 meters of booms have been deployed in areas where that would be effective, 250 of them - around the stern of the Volgoneft-239, stranded near Taman

KRASNODAR, December 30. /TASS/. A total of 29,500 square meters of the Kerch Strait area has been cleared of oil and treated with sorbent materials after the crash of Volgoneft tankers, the Krasnodar Region anti-crisis center reported.

"By December 30, 25 tons of oil-water mixture has been collected; the area, treated with sorbents and cleared of oil is 29,500 square meters. 460 meters of booms have been deployed in areas where that would be effective, 250 of them - around the stern of the Volgoneft-239, stranded near Taman," the center said.

On December 15, the Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239 tankers sank in the Kerch Strait area in the Black Sea amid a storm. One sailor died, and the rest were evacuated. According to emergency services, the tankers were carrying about 9,200 tons of fuel oil. An oil spill occurred in the Black Sea as a result of the accident, and clean-up operations are underway - a working group of over 10,000 people was assembled to carry out the emergency response effort.

The authorities divided the oil-contaminated coastline in the Krasnodar Region into sectors and assigned them to the region's municipalities, each of which sent at least 100 people to carry out the emergency response effort. The head of the Republic of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, said that the spilled oil was mainly drifting towards the Krasnodar Region. The consequences of the spill in Crimea will be eliminated before the start of the tourist season, he noted.

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