Finland firm asks court to seize tanker on cable damage

Finland's power grid operator Fingrid says it has asked a Helsinki court to seize the Eagle S oil tanker in a bid to secure the company's claim for damages related to the breakdown of the Estlink 2 electricity cable.

The undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia was damaged on December 25 along with four telecoms lines, and Finnish authorities boarded the tanker the following day on suspicion it had caused the damage by dragging its anchor along the seabed.

Baltic Sea countries are on high alert after a string of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

NATO said last week it would boost its presence in the region.

Fingrid said in a statement it had asked the Helsinki District Court to formally seize the Eagle S to help secure its financial claim.

"Further investigations at the damage site are expected to provide more information about the extent of the damages and enable more detailed planning and scheduling of the repair," Fingrid said.

A lawyer representing United Arab Emirates-based Caravella LLC FZ, which owns the ship, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The owner has previously asked that Finnish authorities release the vessel.