On the Prospects and Forecasts of the Dynamics of Hydrocarbon Pollution of the Black Sea as a Result of the “Volga-Neft” Tankers Accident in December 2024

The article presents the results of an experiment to identify the environmentally significant properties of M100 grade heating oil samples that were accidentally released into the Black Sea as a result of the shipwreck of two “Volgoneft” “river-sea” class oil tankers in December 2024, which formed dense, hard-to-detect oil and sand bottom aggregates and caused a complex of negative economic and environmental consequences. The behavior of oil and sand aggregates in the simulated conditions of a seasonal increase in seawater temperature to values inherent in the contaminated region confirms the likelihood of a massive transition of petroleum products to a liquid state, which is expected to lead to the rise of large quantities of petroleum products to the sea surface in the summer. During the experiment, a decrease in the viscosity of fuel oil and the ascent of fuel oil occurred when the temperature reached 25–26 °C for model seawater and 23–24 °C for fresh water.