Entire crew missing after Iranian tanker collides in East China Sea
Print Edition
AN Iranian oil tanker collided with a bulk freighter and caught fire off China’s eastern coast, leaving its entire crew of 32 missing and causing the tanker to spill oil into the sea, authorities said yesterday.
The missing — 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis — are all from the tanker Sanchi, which was floating while still burning yesterday afternoon, said Chinese maritime authorities, who have dispatched eight vessels, including three specialized cleansing vessels, for search and rescue.
The South Korean coast guard also sent a ship and a plane to aid the search effort.
The Panama-registered tanker was sailing from Iran to South Korea late on Saturday when it collided with the Hong Kong-registered freighter CF Crystal in the East China Sea, 257 kilometers off the coast of Shanghai, China’s Ministry of Transport said.
All 21 crew members of the Crystal, which was carrying grain from the United States, were rescued, the ministry said. The Crystal’s crew members were all Chinese nationals.
It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the collision.
The size of the oil slick caused by the accident was also not immediately known. It was not clear as of yesterday afternoon whether the tanker was still spilling oil.
Thick clouds of dark smoke could be seen billowing out of the Sanchi tanker, engulfing the vessel as rescue efforts were hampered by bad weather and fire on and around the ship, Mohammad Rastad, head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization, told Iranian television.
The tanker was sailing from Iran to South Korea, carrying 136,000 tons of condensate, an ultra light crude. That is equivalent to just under 1 million barrels, worth about US$60 million, based on global crude oil prices.
“Sanchi is floating and burning as of now,” a Chinese transport official said. “There is an oil slick and we are pushing forward with rescue efforts.”
China Central Television showed pictures of the tanker ablaze and billowing plumes of thick dark smoke.
“There is a wide perimeter of flames around the vessel because of the spillage and search and rescue efforts are being carried out with difficulty,” Rastad said. “Unfortunately, up to this moment, there is no news of the crew.”
It was not immediately clear how much environmental damage had been caused or the volume of oil spilled into the sea.
The last major oil tanker disaster was the sinking of the Prestige off Spain in November 2002, which caused one of Europe’s worst environmental catastrophes. About 63,000 tons of fuel oil leaked into the Atlantic, damaging beaches in France, Spain and Portugal and forcing the closure of Spain’s richest fishing grounds.
Reuters ship tracking data shows Sanchi was built in 2008 and was managed by the National Iranian Tanker Co. Its registered owner is Bright Shipping Ltd. It was due to arrive at Daesan, South Korea, from Kharg Island in Iran yesterday.
The Sanchi tanker, leased by Hanwha Total Petrochemical Co, had “valid foreign insurance,” Iranian oil ministry spokesman Kasra Nouri told Iran’s state television.
CF Crystal was carrying 64,000 tons of grain from the US to China’s southern province of Guangdong, the Chinese government said.
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