Malaysia intercepts missing oil tanker off Singapore

Malaysia said it intercepted a large oil tanker that was involved in a collision with another vessel before it fled the scene and turned off its tracking system.

The Coast Guard said it had located and detained the Ceres 1, sailing under the flag of Sao Tome and Principe, and two tugs that were towing the ship off the country’s east coast.

The ship collided with the Singapore-flagged Hafnia Nile on Friday, setting both vessels on fire.

All crew members on both ships have been rescued, Singapore officials said.

The Malaysian Coast Guard said the cargo ship Ceres 1 left the scene immediately after the collision, which caused a fire and injured at least two crew members.

The Maritime Port Authority of Singapore said the incident occurred about 55 kilometres northeast of Singapore’s Pedra Branca island.

The head of the Malaysian Coast Guard’s search and rescue team, Zain Azman Mohamad Yunus, did not explain why the Sao Tome and Principe-flagged tanker tried to flee, but added that further investigations would be carried out.

Singapore authorities said that after about 40 crew members were rescued from the burning ships, about 26 of them remained on board the Ceres 1 to control the fire.

The Singapore-flagged ship, Hafnia Nile, was reportedly carrying naphtha, a highly flammable type of petroleum.

The cause of the collision is not yet clear. Singapore’s maritime authorities said ship traffic in the busy waterway was not affected.

But Malaysian Coast Guard officials found an oil spill covering an area of ​​about 17 square kilometers.

The Ceres 1 is a supertanker. Some reports suggest it may be part of the so-called “dark fleet” that transports oil from sanctioned countries.

The ship, operated by China’s Shanghai Prosperity Ship Management Co., had previously been carrying Iranian oil subject to U.S. sanctions, market intelligence service S&P Global Commodities at Sea says.