TASS says Russia has started to inspect its tanker fleet after major oil spill

The Russian Government has launched an inspection programme to check the state of the country's tanker fleet after a major tanker-related oil spill, the state TASS news agency cited a government official as saying on Friday.

Authorities in Russia's southern Krasnodar region have declared a region-wide emergency after oil from two ageing tankers that ran into trouble during a storm in December resulted in a major oil spill.

The Volgoneft 212 tanker split in half in the Kerch Strait, between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, while the Volgoneft 239 ran aground 80 metres from the shore near the port of Taman in the strait.

The more than 50-year-old ships were carrying a total of some 9,200 tonnes (62,000 barrels) of oil products and the spill was one of the largest environmental disasters to hit the region in years.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Anastasia Teterevleva Editing by Andrew Osborn)