[Finnish Authorities Board Oil Tanker Suspected of Causing Power Outage
Finnish authorities boarded and took control of an oil tanker traveling from Russia on Thursday, suspecting it had caused the outage of an undersea power cable and three internet lines connecting Finland and Estonia a day earlier. The Cook Islands-registered ship, named Eagle S, was boarded by a Finnish coast guard crew and taken to Finnish waters.
According to investigators, an anchor of the vessel caused the damage to the Estlink 2 interconnector, which will take months to repair. The outage could cause a tense power supply situation during winter. The ship is believed to belong to Russia’s shadow fleet of aging tankers that seek to evade sanctions on the sale of Russian oil.
The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation is leading the probe, which is investigating grave sabotage. The Finnish customs service has seized the vessel’s cargo. Both the Finnish and Estonian governments will hold extraordinary meetings to assess the situation.
The incident is the latest in a string of outages of power cables, telecom links, and gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea since 2022. The Baltic Sea nations are on high alert for potential acts of sabotage. Repairing the Estlink 2 interconnector will take months, and the outage could cause a tense power supply situation during winter.
The United Arab Emirates-based Caravella LLCFZ, which owns the Eagle S, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Peninsular Maritime, which acts as a technical manager for the ship, declined to comment.
The incident has raised concerns about the security of undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said that damage to subsea installations has become so frequent that it is difficult to believe it was caused merely by accident or poor seamanship. The incident is being investigated by police in Sweden, who are leading an investigation into the breach last month of two Baltic Sea telecom cables.
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