The court refused to limit the liability of the owner of "Volgoneft-212" for the oil spill near Anapa.

The Arbitration Court of the Krasnodar Territory did not allow the owner of the tanker "Volgoneft-212", which crashed in the Kerch Strait in December 2024, to join the limitation of liability fund created by insurance companies.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", the acting captain of the seaport of Caucasus, Evgeny Skorchenko, challenged the conclusions of Rosmorrechflot regarding his involvement in the tanker crashes in the Kerch Strait in 2024, but the court supported the agency's position.

A representative of "Kamatransoil", the owner of the tanker "Volgoneft-212", submitted a request to limit the owner's liability, guided by the Commercial Shipping Code, Interfax reports today.

The basis for the request is the norms of the Commercial Shipping Code (CSC). According to these norms, the shipowner also has the right to limit their liability. "Within the current case, the fund has already been created by insurance companies, and we believe that it is possible for "Kamatransoil" to join this fund, as there can only be one fund," the representative of "Kamatransoil" stated today at the court hearing.

He emphasized that the case materials do not record that the owner is related to the emergency situation in the Kerch Strait, and the actions of the company regarding the sinking of the "Volgoneft-212" were not analyzed in any way. "We are in a situation where the owner is deprived of the opportunity to limit their liability, despite the provisions of the CSC," the company representative added.

The representative of the Prosecutor General's Office opposed the satisfaction of the petition. The judge, having heard the arguments, denied the company's request.

The court recognized the independent guarantees of the Russian National Reinsurance Company from VSK and "Alfa Insurance" of 533.4 million rubles as acceptable and sufficient security for the corresponding fund for damage from oil pollution.

Recall that in August 2025, the Arbitration Court of the Krasnodar Territory satisfied the lawsuit of Rosprirodnadzor against the owner and charterer of one of the tankers that crashed in the Kerch Strait, "Volgoneft-212", ordering LLC "Kamatransoil" and LLC "Kama Shipping" to pay more than 49 billion 460 million rubles for damage to the Black Sea. All bank accounts of these companies were frozen. The owner of the sunken tanker "Volgoneft-212" in the Kerch Strait could not challenge the decision to recover over 49 billion rubles for the damage caused to the Black Sea. The owner of the tanker "Volgoneft-239" filed a complaint with the Arbitration Court of the North Caucasus District against the court's decision to recover 35.48 billion rubles in damages to the Black Sea from the company. The Arbitration Court of the North Caucasus District upheld the decisions of the courts to recover more than 84.9 billion rubles from the owners of the tankers that crashed near Anapa for damage to the sea's waters.

Oil was found on all beaches of Anapa, along the coast in the Temryuk district (from the village of Veselovka to the stanitsa of Blagoveshchenskaya) and on the coast of the Azov Sea in the Slavyansky district of Kuban, according to a report from the "Caucasian Knot" "The scale of oil pollution in southern Russia".