Disabled oil tanker adrift in Baltic Sea being towed eastwards

A loaded oil tanker that lost the ability to manoeuvre in the Baltic Sea near the German island of Rügen was being towed almost 25 kilometres eastwards by three tugs.

The towing operation was proceeding very slowly at one to two knots (1.85-3.7 kilometres per hour), explained a spokesperson for Germany's Central Command for Maritime Emergencies (CCME). The manoeuvre was expected to take about eight hours.

The stricken tanker Eventin, loaded with 99,000 tons of oil, had to be moved for safety reasons. There is a little more free sea space to the south in case of an emergency, the CCME spokesperson said.

Strong winds from the north were forecast for Friday night. So far, the island of Rügen has been directly south of the stricken 274-metre-long and 48-metre-wide ship.

The Eventin, which was built in 2006 and is sailing under a Panamanian flag, was en route from the Russian port of Ust-Luga to Egypt's Port Said, according to the ship tracking platform Vesselfinder.

The ship is part of Russia's so-called "shadow fleet" used to export oil despite heavy sanctions on the country, according to a list of Russian-linked vessels compiled by the environmental advocacy organization Greenpeace.

Ships in the "shadow fleet" are often outdated and in poor operating condition.

The Eventin suffered an engine failure and was drifting in the Baltic Sea before being secured, according to CCME. The cause of the engine failure remained initially unclear.