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MT New Diamond, a super tanker carrying crude oil en route to India, ablaze and adrift 40 nautical miles off the east coast of Sri Lanka - Pic by Sri Lanka Air Force
By Asiri Fernando
Efforts to put out a fire onboard the super-tanker MT New Diamond, continued last evening as the vessel, carrying 270,000 metric tonnes of crude oil, continued to drift close to the ecologically important East coast, with authorities in Sri Lanka, India, and Russia scrambling to regain control of the ship with little success.
The India-bound, Panama-registered Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) MT New Diamond issued a distress call last morning, reporting a fire in her engine room after one boiler exploded. The vessel was 37 nautical miles off Sangamankada Point on the East coast when the distress call was issued. Efforts to contain the fire in the engine room had failed, and the fire had spread to the vessel’s bridge and superstructure by last evening.
Despite multiple efforts by the Sri Lankan Navy and Indian Coast Guard, who were the first to arrive on the scene, they lacked the equipment to bring the blaze under control, but were able to bring ashore an injured crew member for treatment.
Ships from the Sri Lankan Navy and two tugs from the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SPLA) stationed at Hambantota port rushed to assist the stricken vessel, the Navy Spokesman Capt. Indika De Silva told Daily FT.
At the request of Sri Lankan authorities, ships from the Indian Coast Guard, Indian Navy and two Russian Navy, which were also at Hambantota on a resupply visit, rushed to render assistance. Indian ships with at least some fire-fighting capacity were en route to assist the vessel last evening, and were expected to reach the stricken tanker before midnight.
The request for assistance to put out the fire onboard the New Diamond highlights Sri Lanka’s lack of capability to respond to such incidents. Sri Lanka had to seek Indian assistance when fire erupted onboard a container-carrying vessel, the MSC Daniela, in 2017, officials said. According to information from Ship Tracking Services, the New Diamond, built in 2000 (IMO registration - 9191423) was chartered by the Indian Oil Company (IOC) to carry nearly 2 billion barrels of crude oil from the port of Mina Al Ahmadi in Kuwait to the Indian port of Paradip when the incident occurred. According to the Navy, the New Diamond carries 270,000 MT of crude oil and nearly 1700 MT of diesel fuel on her journey. The Navy transferred ashore a seriously injured sailor from the New Diamond, who was later admitted to the Kalmunai Hospital for treatment. The Navy had two offshore patrol vessels, a Fast Gun Boat and Fast Attack Craft stationed near the stricken vessel last evening. According to the Navy, the 23-member crew is made up of five Greek and eighteen Philippine nationals. The Indian Coast Guard Vessel ICG Shaurya is on site, assisting to put out the blaze, De Silva said.
Twenty-one of the MT New Diamond’s twenty-three crew members were rescued by a passing merchant vessel; one sailor, believed to be a Philippine national, is missing, and search operations are underway to rescue him. The Captain had remained on board the vessel. However, the Captain of the New Diamond was later rescued by a Navy vessel, but had requested to remain on site to coordinate with the rescue operations. The Sri Lanka Air Force dispatched a surveillance aircraft to monitor the vessel, and an SLAF Mi-17 helicopter used a “Bambi bucket” to waterbomb the fire aboard the New Diamond, the Air Force said. The Indian Coast Guard has also dispatched a maritime patrol aircraft to assist the ongoing operation.
“The vessel is a double-hulled tanker. If the fire is contained, the risk of an oil leak should be minimal,” a senior Navy officer told Daily FT on terms of anonymity. However, the incident comes in the wake of an oil spill in Mauritius last month which caused an environmental disaster, when a Japanese bulk carrier ran aground on a reef, spilling an estimated 1000 MT of fuel oil. Sri Lanka lacks the necessary fire-fighting, rescue and salvage capability befitting a transhipment hub, Shippers’ Academy Colombo CEO Rohan Masakorala stated. “Sri Lanka lacks adequate fire-fighting and salvage capability, even though we have a large volume of shipping that traverses around Sri Lanka.” Masakorala pointed out that successive governments have ignored the capacity gap.
Masakorala also stated that Sri Lanka has outdated laws which related to such maritime incidents, and said that any Sri Lankan aspiration to achieve ‘‘hub status’’ would be incomplete without developing necessary fire-fighting, rescue, salvage and other services which commercial shipping requires. The Japanese Government in 2017 gifted the Sri Lankan Coast Guard two 30-meter fast response vessels, which had dedicated oil spill control equipment, and provided training for Coast Guard personnel. However, these two small vessels are the only vessels which are purpose-equipped for the role in Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lanka Navy, Coast Guard, the Ports Authority and the Marine Environment Protection Authority were preparing contingency plans to respond to any possible oil leakage from the stricken tanker, the Navy said in a press release.
