A team of locally-flagged tugs towed the 113,000-dwt Kyeema Spirit (ex-Bona Vigour, built 1999) to a mooring located approximately 14 kilometres north of Tallinn near the island of Aegna Saar at around 13:00 local time, according to Estonian media reports.
The operation began after authorities installed barriers along the shoreline and around the vessel to protect against the possibility of pollution, which is not believed to be an imminent threat but tugs and an antipollution vessel are still on standby as a precaution.
As TradeWinds reported, a spokesman for Teekay Corp on Monday said the Kyeema Spirit grounded shortly after lifting anchor in order to proceed to the berth in very heavy weather and briefly leaked bilge water, which created an oily sheen but was quickly contained.
Some of the local agencies involved in the ongoing investigation have called the accident “very serious” amid unconfirmed reports that the Estonian Waterways Board warned the 24-man crew about the shoals “several times” before the vessel ran aground.
On Wall Street the incident doesn’t appear to have affected shares of Teekay Tankers, which rose 1.27% to $4.00 in midday trading, but may prompt questions about the impact on earnings if the tanker is out of commission for an extended period of time, analysts say.
The Kyeema Spirit, which trades in an aframax tanker pool and maintains protection-and-indemnity cover with Gard of Norway, was sailing to Estonia to load oil for Statoil before the grounding cut the voyage short, sources say.
According to Estonia’s Police and Border Guard Board, there have been nearly 200 cargoship casualties of varying significance in the Gulf of Finland over the past 12 years in addition to hundreds involving smaller vessels.
