TANKER COLLISION SPILLS CRUDE OIL OFF SUMATRA

Jan. 26, 1993
The safety record of the world tanker industry is rapidly growing worse. In the latest accident, two crude oil tankers collided and caught fire on the evening of Jan. 20 in a busy shipping lane off the northwest coast of Sumatra. The Maersk Navigator, a 255,000 dwt vessel carrying 1.65 million bbl of oil from the Persian Gulf to Japan, and Sanko Honour, a 96,550 dwt vessel carrying an unreported volume of crude, crashed at a point near 6 N. Lat., 94 E. Long.

The safety record of the world tanker industry is rapidly growing worse.

In the latest accident, two crude oil tankers collided and caught fire on the evening of Jan. 20 in a busy shipping lane off the northwest coast of Sumatra.

The Maersk Navigator, a 255,000 dwt vessel carrying 1.65 million bbl of oil from the Persian Gulf to Japan, and Sanko Honour, a 96,550 dwt vessel carrying an unreported volume of crude, crashed at a point near 6 N. Lat., 94 E. Long.

Meantime, rough weather prevented divers from surveying the wreckage of the 89,000 dwt Braer oil tanker, which ran aground Jan. 5 on the Shetland Islands coast. The vessel, carrying 607,000 bbl of Norwegian crude bound for Canada, broke into three sections as a result of being pounded against near shore rocks in a heavy storm (OGJ, Jan. 18, p. 26).

TANKER COLLISION

A.P. Moller Singapore Pte. Ltd., part of the group that owns the Maersk Navigator, confirmed Jan. 21 that its vessel and the Sanko Honour caught fire. Identity of the latter vessel's owner was not immediately available.

The Maersk Navigator crew abandoned ship and was safely taken on board a German container vessel.

The ship continued to burn and was reported to be drifting, while the Sanko Honour fire was brought under control by its crew.

The extent of hull damage to Maersk Navigator was not confirmed, although an unreported amount of oil spilled into the sea and was on fire.

Lloyd's of London said it was uncertain whether the spill was bunker fuel or cargo oil. Lloyd's also said the Sanko Honour was intact.

Smit Tak Towage & Salvage, Singapore, was quickly awarded a contract by Moller to coordinate salvage operations. Smit's first vessel was expected on site during the night of Jan. 21, with a second vessel due at daybreak Jan. 22.

Moller said four fire fighting vessels in all had been sent out from Singapore. A survey plane was scheduled to fly over the Maersk Navigator at 1800 hours Jan. 21, Singapore time, to assess damage to the vessel and the environment.

BRAER SPILL

Salvage contractor Smit International, Rotterdam, last week still hoped it can drill through the sides of the Braer tanker to pump what's left of the crude oil cargo into a barge. The company has not been able to update its estimate of oil still remaining in the wreckage, although only a small amount is thought to be on board.

While operations in the water have stalled, the shoreline near the wreckage has been patrolled by six scientists from the University of Aberdeen and environmental group Greenpeace.

"Over 84,000 metric tons of oil has entered the environment around South Shetland," said Gillian Glegg, head of the field team. "In some areas it is no longer visible. The most important task now is to find where it is, how it is behaving, and determine the longer term effects on Shetland's wildlife and the marine ecosystem.

"Experience of other spills has shown that many of the impacts are still being seen 15 years later. Far from coming to an end, the environmental problems caused by the Braer oil spill could be just beginning."

Copyright 1993 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.