Finland says oil tanker linked to subsea cable harm has severe deficiencies

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Finland’s public transport company mentioned on Wednesday that an oil tanker suspected of damaging undersea cables within the Baltic Sea has been discovered to have severe deficiencies and won’t be allowed to function till repairs have been made.

Baltic Sea nations are on excessive alert following a string of energy cable, telecom hyperlink and gasoline pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The NATO navy alliance has mentioned it’ll increase its presence within the area.

Finnish police seized the Eagle S tanker carrying Russian oil on Dec. 26 and mentioned they suspected that the vessel had broken the Finnish-Estonian Estlink 2 energy line and 4 telecoms cables by dragging its anchor throughout the seabed.

Whereas the police investigation is ongoing, Finnish authorities additionally checked the vessel’s situation in a port state inspection that was concluded on Wednesday.

“Correcting the deficiencies would require restore help from exterior the vessel and can take time,” Director of Maritime Affairs Sanna Sonninen at Finnish Transport and Communications Company Traficom mentioned in a press release.