Two large oil tankers have collided and caught fire off Singapore’s coast, the UN’s shipping agency has said.
Photographs released by the Singapore Navy showed thick black smoke billowing from one tanker and crew being rescued from life rafts and flown to hospital.
The tankers - Singapore-flagged Hafni Nile and the Sao Tome and Principe-flagged tanker Ceres I - were around 34 miles (55km) northeast of the Singaporean island of Pedra Branca on the eastern approach to the Singapore Straits, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said.
The environmental authorities in neighbouring Malaysia said they had been told to prepare for potential oil spills.
Singapore is Asia’s biggest oil trading hub and the world’s largest refuelling port.
Its surrounding waters are vital trade waterways between Asia and Europe and the Middle East and among the busiest global sea lanes.
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Important info regarding the chemicals onboard, emphasis mine:
The 74,000 deadweight-tons capacity panamax tanker Hafnia Nile was carrying about 300,000 barrels of naphtha, according to ship-tracking data from Kpler and LSEG.
The Ceres I is a very large crude carrier supertanker, which ship-tracking data last showed was carrying around 2 million barrels of Iranian crude.
I believe the plan is once the necessary preparations are made they’ll be able to secure the ships safely to tugs and tow them outside the environment.