Towards a Baltic Sea Region Strategy in Critical ... - Helsinki.fi

CHAPTER IV: OIL TRANSPORTATION AND MARITIME SAFETY
figures were backed by the perceptions of both Estonian and Finnish MA, since
they accentuated the importance of human factor as the main cause for accidents.
Representatives of the Russian MA did not explicitly mention human factors as the
main cause for accidents, but emphasised the central role of ships crews,
especially in guaranteeing safe winter navigation.
The number of collisions has not decreased despite the many efforts to
prevent them. HELCOM’s statistics show that collisions have increased in relation
to ships running aground, which used to be the most common type of accident.
(Figure 8) These accidents involved cargo vessels (60% of all accidents), tankers
(15%) and passenger ferries (12%).
Accidents by type in the Gulf of Finland
2000-2006
Technical
failure 4
Physical (3%)
damage 7
(4.7%)
Other 7
(4.7%)
Fire 9
(6.1%)
Machinery
damage 1
(0.7%)
Sunk 1
(0.7%)
Collision 61
(41.2%)
Run aground 58
(39.2%)
Total: 148
Data source: Helcom 2007
Figure IV—8 Accidents by type in the Gulf of Finland 2000-2006. (HELCOM
2007)
Growing criss-crossing traffic
According to the MA of Estonia, Finland and Russia the rapidly growing oil tanker
traffic causes one of the main risks in the traffic in the Gulf of Finland. The Gulf
of Finland’s risk level has risen at the same rate as the traffic volume. Both the
number and size of oil tankers have been growing steadily in the recent years.
According to HELCOM (2006a), by 2015 an increase of 40 % is expected in the
volume of oil shipped yearly on the Baltic Sea. Other estimates are even greater,
and they are related e.g. to the fate of ‘Druzhba’ oil pipeline that runs through
Byelorussia to Central and Western Europe. If it is closed, as has been mooted in
Russia, the volume of oil transports in the Gulf of Finland will rise to a new level.
Currently, the figure is around 150 million tonnes of oil per year.
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