Burning oil tanker explodes and goes down off Shanghai

An Iranian oil tanker has sunk after burning for more than a week following a collision with a freighter on January 6 in the East China Sea.

Chinese state media said large amounts of oil were burning in the surrounding waters.

The tanker, the Sanchi, which had been adrift and on fire following the collision with the freighter CF Crystal, had “suddenly ignited” and sunk, China Central Television said, citing the Shanghai maritime search and rescue centre. It screened clips of a tower of billowing black smoke and flames on the surface of the water.

China’s State Oceanic Administration said that because the hull of the ship had detonated, a large amount of oil in the surrounding waters was on fire, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The administration said it would expand the scope of its monitoring and “quickly ascertain the spread and drift of overflowing oil” from the wrecked ship. A Chinese salvage team on Saturday recovered two bodies from the tanker. Another body, presumed to be one of the Sanchi’s sailors, was found on Monday and brought to Shanghai for identification. The oil tanker’s crew consisted of 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had told his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif by telephone that “as long as there is 1% of hope, China will continue to make 100% effort” to rescue and recover other members of the crew.

The tanker, which was owned by the National Iranian Tanker Company, was carrying almost 1-million barrels of condensate, an ultralight crude oil, to South Korea.

It collided with the CF Crystal, which was carrying grain from the US, about 160 nautical miles off China’s coast near Shanghai.