Three crew members are missing after an oil tanker exploded due to unknown causes and sank off the southern coast of Vietnam on June 17, reports said.
The Nhat Thuan suddenly exploded and burst into flames early in the morning while at anchor 3.5 nautical miles off Vung Tau, said Le Van Nha, the vessel’s captain.
The1,800-ton vessel was carrying nearly 1,800 cubic meters of waste crude oil and 10,000 liters of diesel to a tanker berthed offshore.
The other 12 members of the crew jumped overboard and were rescued by the Vinashin Atlantic which was anchored nearby.
The three missing have been identified as Huynh Hoang Ba, 35, of Tay Ninh Province, Dao Ngoc Dung, 49, of Nghe An Province, and Mai Van Dung, 33, of Ho Chi Minh City.
The Vietnam Maritime Department’s Zone 3 Search and Rescue Center has dispatched ships to search for them.
The fire lasted around two hours and some of the crude spilled into the sea. Provincial authorities have sent teams to prevent the oil slick from spreading.
Cleaning up the spill would not be difficult thanks to good weather and the shallow waters at the site, Nguyen Boa, deputy director of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province’s Department of Natural Resource and Environment, said.
“We plan to salvage the ship today,” he said on June 18.
The HCMC-based Binh Thuan Transport Co., the owner, said the vessel is insured with the Bao Long Insurance JS Company.
The ship was built in 1973 in Japan and is considered too old by international standards and not to be seaworthy by maritime experts.
Official agencies are investigating the cause of the accident.
