Ship collision incident: No oil spill, incident investigation focus

KUALA LUMPUR: No oil spill was detected in the Ceres 1 and Hafnia Nile accidents in Tanjung Balau, Johor, on July 19.

However, the Marine Director General of the Malaysian Marine Department, Captain Mohamad Halim Ahmed, said there was an oil sheen that was suspected to be caused by the Hafnia Nile’s fuel tank.

A preliminary investigation found that at the time of the incident, the oil tanker Ceres 1, which was on a voyage to Lanshan, China, carrying 26 crew members, was anchored at a position 25 nautical miles north-east of Tanjung Balau due to technical problems.

The Hafnia Nile ship carrying 22 crew members was on a voyage to Kashima, Japan, and tried to avoid Ceres 1, but failed.

As a result of the breach, both ships caught fire, and Ceres 1’s anchor chain broke, causing Ceres 1 to drift.

“Our investigation is more focused on the incident itself, a safety incident under the International Maritime Organization. We have a code that we will focus on that investigation.

“Once we complete the security incident investigation, the next step will be decided later by the government. In the initial investigation procedure, we will start with the incident first because, as you know now, the two ships are still floating and the Hafnia Nile suffered a major fire. So, it is dangerous for navigation to keep them floating like that.

“So, the focus of our attention now is to quickly push the ship to the repair area or quickly get the ship owner to get the ship up and running.

“But Hafnia Nile will face problems because they suffered major burns on the ship, especially in the engine room. The entire superstructure has actually been compromised, and they need to refuel first and tow to another place to do repairs while Ceres 1 has no cargo. The damage is not that bad, but the ship still needs to be repaired,” he said in a press conference on Tuesday.

All 22 children of Hafnia Nile were rescued by the Singapore Navy ship RSS Supreme and are being treated at the Singapore Civil Hospital.

One of the three riders is reported to have died, but the matter has not been officially confirmed by Singapore.

Both vessels are currently detained for further investigation by the Malaysian Maritime Department, while the damage estimate has not yet been ascertained.