Moby-Orli

Two Italian officers have been sentenced to daily fines after releasing large amounts of heavy fuel oil into the sea off Utö in 2019 from the 'Princess Anastasia', now sailing as 'Moby Orli'. The case was heard again by the Helsinki Court of Appeal, which upheld the district court's verdict. The spill was estimated to be between nine and 39 cubic meters, and the oil had time to spread over 40 kilometers all the way to Utö. The ship was en route from Stockholm to Helsinki, when the spill occurred near the Finland Lion lighthouse. The two defendants were sentenced to 100 daily fines each.

The 'Moby Orli' made it possible to tranship the 69 Bolivian passengers, among them 14 minors, who could not disembark in Barcelona from the 'MSC Armonia' and will be transported to a non-EU port by the Spanish authorities. The 'Moby Orli' has left the regular Livorno – Bastia route and reached Barcelona on April 4, 2024. The ferry will transport the Bolivian passengers back to a non-EU port. Without this prompt assistance from the 'Moby Orli', the 'MSC Armonia' would have remained stuck on the dock in Barcelona for another few days before being able to sail again. Once this mission has been completed, the ferry will return to its regular service for Moby between Tuscany and Corsica, where in the meantime it has been replaced by the 'Moby Kiss'. Before arriving in Barcelona, the authorities at the port of Tenerife had allowed the Bolivian citizens to disembark on Spanish territory, and only when the ship arrived on the Iberian peninsula did they encounter problems with their documentation.

The 'Princess Anastasia' that can accommodate up to 2,500 people and arrived in Belokamenka on May 3, 2020, cast off its moorings and left Murmansk on May 31, 2022, headed to Messina with an ETA as of June 12. The departure of the vessel coincides with the mounting troubles for Novatek and its Arctic LNG projects. Following the introduction of international sanctions, the natural gas company can no longer import technology of crucial importance for project development. According to the EU’s 5th sanctions package, Russian companies are banned from importing equipment such as heat-exchanging units, which is creating serious problems for Novatek, which leans heavily of technology from European manufacturers. The last pieces of contracted plant components arrived in Belokamenka on May 25, two days before the final time limit set by the European Council. It is believed that the 'Princess Anastasia' has accommodated mostly foreign experts. Without access to western technology, those people might no longer be needed in Belokamenka. The LNG Construction Center in Belokamenka is building so-called gravity-based structures (GBS) and assembles topside modules for the Arctic LNG 2 project. Novatek might ultimately be able to complete only one of the projected three structures and already in late April halted construction at project train number 3, while number 2 will be halted in late May.