OIL TANKER HIT BY ‘EXTERNAL SOURCE’ IN SAUDI ARABIA, SHIPPING FIRM HAFNIA SAYS

Mon 14 December 2020:

The owner of the BW Rhine oil tanker said on Monday that all 22 sailors on board escaped without injury after an explosion and fire while the ship was discharging in port.

“BW Rhine has been hit from an external source whilst discharging at Jeddah… causing an explosion and subsequent fire on board,” the Singapore-based shipping company Hafnia said in a statement.

The ship’s crew put out the fire, the company said, adding that parts of the ship’s hull had been damaged.

“It is possible that some oil has escaped from the vessel, but this has not been confirmed and instrumentation currently indicates that oil levels on board are at the same level as before the incident,” Hafnia said.

The BW Rhine loaded about 60,000 tonnes of gasoline from Yanbu port on December 6, according to shipping data on Refinitiv. The tanker is currently 84-percent full, according to its draft.

Hafnia warned that it was possible that some oil had leaked from the site of the blast.

The announcement suggested another case of an oil tankercoming under attack in the port at Jeddah, after a mine attack last month that damaged a tanker, which Saudi authorities blamed on Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The United Kingdom Marine Trade Operations, an organization under Britain’s royal navy, urged ships in the area to exercise caution and said investigations were ongoing.

Dryad Global, a maritime intelligence firm, also reported the blast. No one immediately offered a cause.

The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, which patrols the Mideast, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press.

Monday’s explosion jangled nerves in the energy market. The incident, coupled with hopes that a rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine will lift global fuel demand, pushed the price of Brent crude oil back above $50 a barrel.

Saudi Arabia did not immediately acknowledge the blast, which struck off a crucial port and distribution centre for its oil trade and comes after a number of security incidents concerning Saudi oil infrastructure.

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent