Media attention on Russian seafarers in Nordic waters
30.09.2025
We are a bit surprised by all the media attention our vessel, Oslo Carrier 3, has received the last few days. The drone activity in Denmark and Norway is alarming and requires of course the highest attention.
Oslo Bulk has not been contacted by any Authorities in Denmark nor Norway with regard to Oslo Carrier 3, but a number of articles have been written in media.
Last week Denmark reported unfriendly drone activity near some of its airports. The Oslo Carrier 3 was passing Copenhagen more or less at the time the drone activity was observed.
The vessel was enroute from Nordenham, Germany to Klaipeda in Lithuania to discharge a steel cargo from Turkey. The vessel was visited by Port state in Nordenham incl police who conducted a drug search of the entire vessel.
The vessel was then ordered by Dalaro to go via Skagen to bunker low sulphur fuel oil instead of through the Kiel Canal (as no LSFU is available in the Kiel canal).
Upon arrival in Klaipeda the vessel was inspected by both border control and Nato military personnel; – above and underwater. The vessel then sailed to Hamina.
The Media has also drawn attention to an Oslo Bulk link to RSB group. We can confirm that we used the service of this group in 2012-16 to provide armed guards on a few vessels passing the Gulf of Aden to avoid Somalia piracy. This company was approved by the Flag state. We have not used this company since 2016.
Oslo Bulk AS is a Norwegian company. We own 10 vessels employed in the ‘Dalaro trade’ where we are also a shareholder together with Navalis. All of our vessels are classed by DNV, Norway, and insured by Gard, Norway.
Bulkship Management AS (100% owned by Oslo Bulk) operates all its vessels from Oslo. We have our own crew management company in Kaliningrad that provides Russian seafarers to our fleet. We use a mix of Russians and Indonesians on board all our ships.
Dalaro performs about 150-200 round voyages annually from Baltic to North Africa with sawn timber southbound and Salt/aggregates northbound. We have been operating this service for the past 15-20 years.
Vessels in this trade have traditionally been manned by east European seafarers. Nothing wrong with Asian seamen, but they do have less experience with the ice trade and securing of deck cargo during a long winter. Therefore, Russian and Ukrainian crew have dominated as seafarers.
We can assure you that we follow the situation with the respect it deserves.
