Two large oil tankers, including one known to have carried oil from Iran and Venezuela, were on fire near Singapore early on Friday, according to Singaporean authorities which said that all crew on both vessels are accounted for.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said it was alerted in the early morning local time on Friday to a fire onboard both a Singapore-flagged tanker, Hafnia Nile, and a São Tomé and PrÃncipe-flagged tanker, Ceres I, about 55 km (34 miles) northeast of Pedra Branca within Singapore's Maritime Search and Rescue Region.
Singaporean authorities dispatched a helicopter to assist with evacuating the crews. There were a total of 22 crew onboard Hafnia Nile and 40 crew onboard Ceres I, and all the crew are accounted for, Singapore's MPA said.
Navigation in the area has not been affected, but authorities are on alert to assist in case of oil spills.
According to TankerTrackers.com, Hafnia Nile, a Panamax-sized tanker carrying oil, had knocked into the starboard bow of the empty dark fleet VLCC called CERES I in the international waters of the Riau archipelago on Friday morning, based on the tanker-tracking firm's readings of AIS positioning data.
The tanker Ceres I is known to have shipped Iranian crude oil and Venezuelan oil to China in recent years, shipping sources told Reuters.
Ceres I was most recently known for carrying Iranian oil in March and April, per vessel-tracking data cited by Reuters.
The protection and indemnity (P&I) insurer of the tanker, built in 2001, is unknown, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The use of old tankers with unknown insurers is a typical characteristic of the tankers in the so-called dark fleet, or shadow fleet, engaged in trade with Iranian, Venezuelan, and Russian oil to circumvent Western sanctions.
Russia's shadow fleet has caused more than 50 maritime accidents, insurer Allianz SE said earlier this year.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More