Fuel oil spills in Volga River, no impact on ships

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A barge ran aground spilling 190 tonnes of fuel oil into the Volga River on Monday, but the incident has not disrupted traffic, a duty officer at Russia's Emergencies Ministry said.

He said by telephone the accident occurred in Samara region in central Volga. The 3,000-tonne barge belongs to Sartanker, a branch of Volgatanker shipping company.

"The cleanup of the slick ... is underway," he said.

In summer some Russian refineries opt to supply fuel oil to sea ports by river-class barges, which offer lower tariffs than railroad.

During the navigation period, Russia exports over 1.0 million tonnes of fuel oil per month to northwestern Europe through the ports of St Petersburg, Vysotsk and from floating storage facilities.

Floating storage facilities, which are usually fixed in May, are used as collecting points for oil delivered by river tankers from Volga through the Volgobalt canal and the Neva River for further reloading to export tankers.

(Reporting by Eugenia Pandova, writing by Gleb Gorodyankin, Editing by Peter Blackburn)