Thailand’s government has ordered the Royal Thai Navy and the Department of Transportation to respond to the scene of a potentially significant oil spill after an explosion on a Chevron-operated FSO vessel killed one crew member, 207km (129 miles) off the country’s coastline.
Maritime Executive reports that the vessel, the Benchamas 2, was rocked by an explosion during routine maintenance and had started taking on water at the stern.
Chevron said in a statement that a crew member, a contractor who was working aboard the vessel during a maintenance operation, was killed in the explosion. According to reports, he was assisting a team that was working on repairs to remove an underwater valve, which the government referred to as a “seawater suction pipe”. The pipe is now leaking and causing the engine room to flood, cutting the vessel’selectric power.
The Royal Thai Navy said the crude oil heating system was not working due to the lack of power, raising the potential for an oil leak of the reported 400,000 barrels of oil stored aboard.
Chevron said 29 crew members were working on the vessel at the time of the explosion and non-essential staff had now been evacuated.
The Thai government also confirmed that the remaining crew were in no immediate danger and that it was working with the navy to stabilise the situation, planning for three scenarios, including successfully sealing the leaking pipe, or more water continuing to enter the vessel. The third scenario was the possibility of an oil spill from the vessel.
The 104,500 dwt Benchamas 2 was converted in a Malaysian shipyard from a 1998-built Aframax tanker Bunga Kelena 5, owned by MISC Berhad, to provide a maximum storage capacity of 650,000 barrels. Reports at the time had indicated that the vessel was designed to operate for 12 years without drydocking.
