The crew of the undermined in The Mediterranean Sea of the Russian gas carrier was rescued in a dinghy

Yesterday, March 3, the Russian LNG tanker Arctic Metagaz exploded in the Mediterranean Sea. Greek media report on the attack of a gas carrier. The crew of the vessel escaped in a lifeboat. It is known that this is not the first ship that is associated with Russia and has been blown up in the area of Libya over the past four months.

"The crew was found in a lifeboat within the Libyan search and Rescue zone. All crew members are safe," the Maltese Armed Forces said.

The country's military department reported that they received a message about the plight of the Arctic Metagaz LNG tanker on the afternoon of March 3.

According to the maritime security company Diaplous, the Greek Naftemporiki reports, the tanker was attacked around 04.00 and numerous explosions occurred. It is assumed that the ship was hit by naval drones. A powerful fire started on board, which was visible from passing ships.

The Russian gas carrier is registered to the Indian Lathyrus Shipping and is operated by the Russian SMP Technical Management from St. Petersburg. The tanker is under sanctions, as it transports cargo from the Arctic LNG—2 sanctions project.

Now the ship was also traveling with a batch of liquefied natural gas to China. The project has established out-of-season deliveries of navigation along the Northern Sea Route along Europe through the Suez Canal.

The vessel can carry 80 million cubic meters of gas in the form of LNG. Now these volumes are worth more than $ 50 million on the European market.

The fate of the gas carrier itself is still unknown. It is known that in December, the SBU conducted a terrorist operation and attacked the Qendil tanker with unmanned boats, which was returning from India to Russia through the Suez Canal and in the very middle of the Mediterranean Sea, the ship came under attack.

"The Security Service of Ukraine conducted a new unprecedented special operation at a distance of more than 2 thousand km from the territory of our state. According to the results of multi—stage activities in the neutral waters of the Mediterranean Sea, Alpha SBU struck the tanker of the so-called shadow fleet of the Russian Federation QENDIL with aerial drones," the source told Interfax Ukraine.