A tanker carrying oil from Venezuela ran aground in Indonesian waters near the Singapore Strait, Indonesian officials said Saturday as they tried to free it.
The Cameroonian-flagged MT Liberty, carrying a cargo of 139,000 tons of oil, ran aground last week near Pasir Panjang in the Riau Islands region, the commander of the region’s naval base, Anro, said. Casanova.
According to satellite ship tracking site TankerTrackers.com, the ship was carrying oil from Venezuela, a country that came under sanctions due to the brutal crackdown on protests in 2015. US sanctions were recently eased.
6 tugboats mobilized
Efforts to free the ship continued Saturday afternoon, as the Indonesian navy deployed six tugboats to take advantage of the high tide, Anro Casanova said.
According to the first information, the ship ran aground when it was weighing anchor to head towards the PT dock. Oiltanking Karimun, petroleum products storage company.
As a precautionary measure, “anti-oil booms were deployed around the ship to prevent oil from spreading to the surrounding waters,” Anro Casanova said in a statement.
A “ghost” ship
This is a new incident involving a so-called “ghost” ship, which operates outside the official maritime sector, an issue described this week as “of great concern” by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
The Turba, another Cameroon-flagged ship carrying oil from Russia, a country also under sanctions, was discovered floating off the coast of Indonesia last month.
Earlier this year, a ghost tanker named Pablo, suspected of carrying Iranian oil, caught fire off the coast of Malaysia.
US sanctions on oil exports from Venezuela, Iran and Russia have incentivized the operation of a large fleet of vessels that lack standard safety certifications, insurance and transparent ownership structures.
The growth of the clandestine fleet of oil tankers used by the sanctioned countries raises fears of accidents that could cause, in particular, oil spills.
Source: BFM TV
