Fully loaded supertanker catches fire off Sri Lanka

The South Asian island country begins towing the tanker after it began drifting towards land

COLOMBO, SRI LANKA:

A fire broke out on a Panama-flagged supertanker carrying about 2 million barrels of oil in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka began towing the fully loaded supertanker after it began drifting towards land, a spokesperson for the navy of the Indian Ocean nation said on Friday.

The fire was still raging on the New Diamond tanker, said the spokesperson, Captain Indika de Silva. There were 23 crew on board, one of whom is presumed dead. The rest have been taken off the ship by the Sri Lankan navy, with one injured crew member flown to the capital Colombo for treatment.

There were no signs of an oil leak from the vessel, de Silva added. Ships from the Russian navy and the Indian coastguard have been assisting in the firefighting.

The fire that broke out in the engine room of the New Diamond on Thursday morning had spread to the bridge of the ship, chartered by Indian Oil Corp (IOC), though it has yet to reach the cargo area, the Sri Lankan navy said.

Initially, the ship was stranded 38 km (24 miles) east of the Sri Lankan town of Thirukovil, but drifted within 25 km of the coast after being abandoned. Authorities were now towing it eastward, away from the coast, de Silva said.

Thirukovil is a town in Sri Lanka’s Ampara district that was badly battered by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Arugam Bay, a world-renowned surfing spot, is nearby.

“The missing Filipino sailor is presumed dead. He was badly injured when a boiler exploded,” de Silva told Reuters, citing crew who were rescued.

“There were 5 Greek and 18 Philippine nationals among the crew. One of them was injured and he was airlifted out of the ship and the rest were accounted for.”

While there are no signs of a leak, Sri Lanka’s meteorology department has already modelled the impact of 70,000 tonnes of crude oil - a quarter of the ship’s cargo - spilling into the ocean.

The simulation, a worst case scenario according to authorities, found that such a spill would not immediately threaten the country’s east coast.

But Dharshani Lahandapura, chair of Sri Lanka’s federal Marine Environment Protection Authority, told Reuters that any spill from the ship would be catastrophic for marine life.

“It will be a huge environmental and economic disaster if this happens,” she said.

The 1989 oil spill from the Exxon Valdez, considered one of the worst human-caused environmental disasters, spewed about 37,000 tonnes of crude into waters off Alaska.

The New Diamond had sailed from the port of Mina Al Ahmadi in Kuwait, loaded with Kuwait Export Crude, Refinitiv Eikon tracking data showed. It was heading for the Indian port of Paradip, where state-run IOC has a 300,000 barrel-per-day refinery.

Below are details of the ship:

The 299,986 dead weight tonne (dwt) very large crude carrier (VLCC) tanker has a total capacity 340,104 cubic meters, or about 300,000 tonnes.

The fully-laden vessel was carrying about 2 million barrels (around 270,000 tonnes) of Kuwait oil valued at roughly $90 million to the Paradip refinery on India’s east coast when fire broke out in the engine on Sept 3.

The 333-meter long double-hulled supertanker was built in 2000 by Mitsui Ichihara Engineering & Shipbuilding in Japan.

The 20-year-old New Diamond was previously sold at $26.5 million in January 2013, and the current market value is $21.28 million, according to VesselsValue, a company that tracks ships and vessel transactions.

The Panamanian-flagged tanker (IMO number 9191424) is owned by Liberia-based Porto Emporios Shipping Inc since 2013.

The vessel’s commercial and safety manager is Greece-based New Shipping Ltd, which has a fleet of 32 oil tankers and bulk carriers under its care, according to data from Equasis.org, a shipping transparency website.

In 1992, the United Nations shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), mandated that all tankers of 5,000 dwt and more be fitted with double hulls to reduce the likelihood of leaks following the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster in Alaska in 1989.