SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Singapore’s Navy said on Friday it had rescued crew members from two large oil tankers that caught fire about 55 km (34 miles) northeast of the Singaporean island of Pedra Branca, near the world’s biggest refuelling port.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) earlier said it was alerted to a fire on Friday at 6:15 a.m. (2215 GMT) onboard both a Singapore-flagged tanker, Hafnia Nile, and a Sao Tome and Principe-flagged tanker, Ceres I.
The cause of the fires was not clear.
In a statement on social media, Singapore Navy said the frigate RSS Supreme had rescued the crew and was providing medical assistance. It did not immediately give details.
The 74,000 deadweight-tons capacity Panamax tanker Hafnia Nile (IMO 9766217) was carrying naphtha, according to ship-tracking data from Kpler and LSEG.
It was not immediately clear what fuel Ceres I (IMO 9229439) was carrying. The tanker is a very-large-crude-carrier (VLCC) of 300,000 deadweight-tons capacity and was last marked as carrying Iranian crude between March to April, ship-tracking data showed.
Singapore is Asia’s oil trading hub and the world’s largest bunkering port and surrounding waters are vital trade waterways between Asia and Europe and the Middle East.
(Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Miral Fahmy)
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