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An Iranian vessel operating under Panama’s flag has been on fire since last Saturday in the East China Sea, following a collision with a cargo ship about 260km off the coast of Shanghai. The boat could burn for as long as one month, Park Sung-dong, an official with South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, said today.
The Sanchi was carrying 136,000 tonnes or nearly 1 million barrels of condensate from Iran to South Korea when it crashed against the Hong Kong-registered freighter CF Crystal, carrying grain from the US. Twenty-one Chinese nationals aboard the latter were rescued, however, there are no signs of survivors from the former and one body has already been recovered. At least 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshi citizens were part of the crew of the flaming boat, which was run by National Iranian Tanker Co., the country’s top oil shipping operator.
According to the BBC, China’s transport ministry said heavy winds, rain, and 4-metre waves continued to hamper efforts to contain the fire. The South Korean Coastguard, on the other hand, told Reuters that they had to stay three miles from the tanker.
Different media reports state that even though no large oil spill has been detected so far, officials are worried about the possibility of the ship exploding, sinking and releasing its toxic contents into the ocean. Condensate is an almost transparent and odorless ultra-light crude, it is more explosive than regular crude oil and it is used to produce jet and heating fuel, gasoline and diesel. The load in the Sanchi was worth about $60 million.
Authorities in the Asian giant are hopeful that the oil would continue to burn off or evaporate, thus leaving little residue. Nevertheless, possible damage to the mackerel and croaker-rich Zhoushan fishing ground, which is where the crash occurred, is still a major concern.
Geng Shuang, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that the cause of the accident is still under investigation.
3 Comments
Mike Failla
Well…….that oil wont end up in north korea will it?
don
I wouldn’t have thought SK would buy oil from IRAN—think weapons supplier
Altaf
SK, Iran, weapons, NK – this is all BS. The fact is SK imports Condensate to refine, unlike US which refines heavy crude.
When a well produces Crude or Crude+ gas, the gas is called wet gas. LNG end users do not prefer wet gas. So the wet gas is processed to separate liquids and other impurities and sell the dry gas as “Natural gas” in various forms (compressed gas-CNG or Liquified gas-LNG). The liquids thus obtained are called Condensate. It is one form of ultra light crude which you can directly pour into vehicles. This condensate does not require complex refineries to process to get gasoline, LPG and many other products used in petrochemical industry.
I do not know why but Japan and SK imports large quantities of Condensate to process. Now the largest gas producers in the world being Iran, Qatar, Australia, obviously SK imports large quantities of Condensate from these countries.
One of the tankers carrying Condensate got into an accident which is the story behind the article.