| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | New Diamond |
| Owner | Porto Emporios Shipping Inc, Piraeus, Greece |
| Port of registry |  Panama |
| Builder | Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding – Chiba, Japan |
| Laid down | 14 December 1999 |
| Launched | 10 August 2000 |
| Completed | 29 November 2000 |
| Identification | |
| Fate | Scrapped inGadani in 2021 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | VLCC |
| Type | Oil tanker |
| Tonnage | |
| Length | 330.0 m (1,082 ft 8 in) |
| Beam | 60.0 m (196 ft 10 in) |
| Installed power | Singlediesel engine |
| Speed | 15.5knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph) |
MTNew Diamond is avery large crude carrier. On 3 September 2020, the ship caught fire off the western coast ofSri Lanka, resulting in the death of a Filipino crew member. After burning intermittently for almost a week, the fire was reported to be extinguished by 11 September. In July 2021 the ship was beached atGadani Ship Breaking Yard.
The ship was built asIkomasan byMitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding inChiba, Japan.[1] Itskeel waslaid on 14 December 1999, it waslaunched on 10 August 2000, and was delivered on 29 November 2000.[1] In 2013, the vessel was renamedDiamond Warrior, and again toNew Diamond the following year.[1]New Diamond has agross tonnage of 160,079 GT and adeadweight tonnage of 299,986 DWT.[1] It measures 330 metres (1,082 ft 8 in) long, with abeam of 60 metres (200 ft), and is powered by a singlediesel engine that gives it a speed of 15.5knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph).[1] At the time of its fire,New Diamond was owned by the Greek company Porto Emporios Shipping Inc.[2]
On 3 September 2020, a fire broke out in the engine room ofNew Diamond at around 07:45 local time (SLST), when the ship was about 65 kilometres (40 mi) east of Sri Lanka in theSangaman Kanda Point.[3][4] At the time, the ship was carrying 270,000 tonnes of oil from Kuwait to theParadip refinery in India, with 18 Filipino and five Greek crewmembers on board.[5][3] The cargo was loaded on 23 August 2020 at Minaal Ahmadi and was due to arrive at Paradip on 5 September.[6] The ship was chartered for the voyage by theIndian Oil Corporation.[7]
Reuters reported that the fire was triggered by an explosion and was initially brought under control before spreading upwards to the ship'sbridge.[8] The Sri Lankan Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) said it believed that the ship's cargo tanks were intact following the fire, but that a slight oil slick had been sighted, perhaps from the fuel oil on board.[5] MEPA said that early on 4 September two explosions were reported fromNew Diamond, though the Sri Lankan Army said that there was no danger of an oil leak at the time.[9][10]
In the meantime, the government of theMaldives had expressed worry, with a presidential minister saying that the country needed to take all precautions to prevent oil from reaching its shores.[11]
19 sailors were rescued by the commercial vesselHelen M, two by theSri Lanka Navy shipSayura, and one by the Navy shipRanarisi, which landed a rescue party aboardNew Diamond.[5] A Filipino crew member died in the fire.[11][12] 22 crew members were rescued and one person who sustained burn injuries was admitted to the Kalmunai Hospital.[12] A total of four Sri Lankan ships responded to the incident, as well as a surveillance aircraft of theSri Lanka Air Force.[13][5][14] International responders included fourIndian Coast Guard ship and threeIndian Navy vessels, and twoRussian Navy ships that were in Sri Lanka for scheduled exercises at the time.[5][15] In addition, aMi-17 helicopter of theSri Lanka Air Force was also deployed in the search operation.[16]Indian Coast Guards (ICG) deployed ICG Shaurya, ICG Sarang, ICG Samudra 'Pahredar' and ICG Dornier rescued 22 of 23 crew and confirmed no oil spill.[17]
On 6 September, Sri Lanka Navy CommanderNishantha Ulugetenne said that the fire had been brought under control after 36 hours of rescue operations.[18][19] However, it subsequently ignited again and burned for several more days before being declared contained on 9 September.[20] By then, rescue operations had grown to more than a dozen ships from India and Sri Lanka, while the Sri Lanka Air Force had carried out 176 missions to drop about 440,000 litres (120,000 US gal) of water and 4,500 kilograms (9,900 lb) of fire suppressing chemicals.[20] The fire was extinguished by 11 September, when salvage teams boardedNew Diamond to work on staunching a fuel oil leak and prepare the ship for a tow to a port where the cargo of crude oil would be unloaded.[21] In late September,New Diamond was taken under tow for the port ofKandla in western Indian state ofGujarat for the offloading of her cargo of crude oil,[22] though the destination was subsequently changed to the port ofKhor Fakkan in the United Arab Emirates, where the oil would be transferred to a different tanker for transport to Paradip.[23]
On 9 September 2020, MEPA announced that it planned to take legal action against the owner ofNew Diamond on grounds of violating Sri Lankan environmental protection laws.[2] The captain ofNew Diamond, Stereo Sterio Ilias, was charged in the Colombo High Court by the Sri Lankan attorney general of causing an oil spill and violating the Marine Environment Protection Authority Act, with a fine of $1 million sought; the court decreased the fine to $65,000 and Ilias was released after paying.[24] The ship's owner was charged $2.4 million for the firefighting effort, which the company paid as a condition of towingNew Diamond out of Sri Lankan waters.[24]
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 2020 | |
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| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents |
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