An oil tanker that left the site of a collision and fire east of Singapore had been intercepted off the coast of Malaysia in the early hours of Sunday, Malaysian maritime authorities said.
Ceres I, a crude oil tanker sailing under the flag of Sao Tome & Principe, and the Hafnia Nile, a Singapore-flagged refined-products tanker, crashed early Friday morning in one of the world’s busiest waterways, setting both ablaze. Ceres I appeared to then have switched off its transponder for more than a day, according to Bloomberg ship-tracking data.
After being tracked by Malaysian authorities, Ceres I was intercepted 28 nautical miles off Tioman Island at 1.20am local time on Sunday, pulled by two tug boats, the coastguard said in a statement. All three have been detained.
“Malaysia has successfully located and detained the Ceres I together with two tugboats that were towing it” off the country’s eastern coast, Zin Azman Mohamad Yunus, the coastguard’s search and rescue commander, said in the statement.
03:01
Singapore races to clean up oil slick from nature reserve as beaches closed
Singapore races to clean up oil slick from nature reserve as beaches closed
An aerial survey detected some traces of a spill, but further checks and an investigation will follow.
Singapore authorities said on Friday that 36 crew members from both vessels were rescued, but 26 remained on the Ceres I to fight the fire.
Ceres I was built in 2001, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, meaning it is still in use well beyond when most owners would consider scrapping a vessel. It was also sailing under an obscure flag, used by only 55 vessels out of a merchant fleet of tens of thousands of ships – both characteristics common to almost all dark fleet ships.
The vessel, a very large crude carrier or VLCC, hauled cargoes from Iran and Venezuela earlier this year and last year, according to data from market intelligence firm Kpler.
The exact cause of Friday’s crash remains unclear.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
