BODY RECOVERED AS FIRE CONSUMES IRANIAN TANKER
▶ Vessel off China’s east coast burns for a second day as 31 remain missing and fears of an oilspill increase
China and South Korea sent aircraft and ships to look for the crew of the Sanchi, and the US navy also joined the search
A blaze aboard an Iranian oil tanker that collided with a grain ship off China’s east coast continued for a second day yesterday.
And the remains of one of the 32 missing crew members were found on board yesterday afternoon.
Concerns were growing that the tanker and its volatile cargo, which hit the freighter on Saturday night in the East China Sea, might explode and sink, the rescue team said.
Poor weather continued to hamper the recovery work, said Lu Kang, a spokesman at China’s foreign ministry.
The size of the oilspill and the extent of its environmental harm were not known, but the disaster could be the worst since 1991 when 260,000 tonnes leaked off the Angolan coast.
Mohammad Rastad, head of Iran’s ports and maritime organisation, said that the body of the sailor had been sent to Shanghai for identification.
The fate of the other 31 crew is not known.
The Sanchi tanker, run by Iranian oil shipping operator National Iranian Tanker Company, collided with the CF Crystal about 160 nautical miles off China’s coast near Shanghai and the mouth of the Yangtze River.
Yesterday, a flotilla of boats doused the flames with water as plumes of thick dark smoke continued to billow from the tanker.
China’s ministry of transport and maritime safety would not comment when asked if the fire aboard the Sanchi had been extinguished.
“The Chinese government takes maritime accidents like this very seriously, and has already sent many search and rescue teams to the scene to carry out search and rescue,” Mr Lu said.
China sent four ships and three cleaning boats to the site.
South Korea sent a ship and a helicopter, while a US navy aircraft searched an area of about 12,350 square kilometres for crew members.
The Panama-registered tanker was sailing from Iran to South Korea carrying 136,000 tonnes of condensate, an ultra-light and highly volatile crude. That is equal to about 1 million barrels, worth about US$60 million (Dh220m).
Ship tracking data shows the collision occurred in waters not often used by large vessels. Most ships travel either closer to the Chinese coast in the west or more nearby to Japan in the east.
The freight ship, which was carrying US grain, suffered slight damage and the 21 Chinese crew members were rescued.
China’s transport ministry said the CF Crystal was being taken to the port of Luhuashan, south of Shanghai, where authorities will start an investigation into the cause of the incident.
Mr Lu said authorities were soon to discuss how victims of the disaster may be compensated, and that compensation and other questions would be addressed after an investigation into the accident was completed.
Bad weather made it hard for the rescue crews to get to the tanker and toxic gases from the burning oil posed a major safety risk.
When condensate meets water, it evaporates quickly and can cause a large-scale explosion as it reacts with air and turns into a flammable gas, the transport ministry said yesterday.
Trying to contain a spill of condensate, which is extremely low in density, highly toxic and much more explosive than normal crude oil, may be difficult.
When liquid, most condensate is colourless and virtually odourless.
Surface spills of condensate are therefore difficult to see, making them hard to manage and contain.
Tankers also carry shipping fuel, known as bunker, which is extremely heavy and toxic when spilled, though much less explosive.
The Shanghai maritime bureau’s navigation department said the collision did not affect traffic in and out of Shanghai, one of the world’s busiest and biggest ports, or ports along the Yangtze River.
A spokesman for South Korea’s Hanwha Total Petrochemical, which was due to receive the cargo, said it would use its own stockpiles to replace the lost cargo.