The tanker, which had sailed away from the scene of a collision and fire east of Singapore, was intercepted off the coast of Malaysia early Sunday morning, Malaysian maritime authorities said.
The Ceres I, a São Tomé and Príncipe-flagged crude tanker, and the Hafnia Nile, a Singapore-flagged refined products tanker, crashed early Friday in considered one of the world’s busiest waterways, setting each on fire. The Ceres I apparently turned off its transponder for greater than a day, in keeping with Bloomberg ship tracking data.
After being tracked by Malaysian authorities, the Ceres I used to be intercepted 28 nautical miles off Tioman Island at 1:20 a.m. local time Sunday, towed by two tugboats, the coast guard said in a press release. All three have been detained.
“Malaysia successfully located and stopped Ceres I and the two tugboats that were towing it” off the country’s eastern coast, Zin Azman Mohamad Yunus, commander of the coast guard’s search and rescue operation, said in a press release.
Aerial surveys have revealed traces of a leak, but further inspections and investigations will likely be carried out shortly.
Singaporean authorities said Friday that 36 crew members from each ships had been rescued, but 26 remained on board the Ceres I to fight the hearth.
The Ceres I used to be inbuilt 2001, in keeping with data compiled by Bloomberg, meaning it has been in service far beyond when most owners would have considered scrapping the ship. It also sailed under a little-known flag, utilized by just 55 ships out of a merchant fleet of tens of 1000’s of ships—each characteristics shared by nearly all ships in the dead of night fleet.
Earlier this yr and last yr the vessel, a really large crude carrier (VLCC), was carrying cargoes from Iran and Venezuela, in keeping with data from market evaluation firm Kpler.
The exact reason behind Friday’s accident stays unclear.
Additional information: Agence France-Presse
