VLCC abandoned and ablaze off Sri Lanka

A ladden VLCC suffered fire in the engine room while enroute to Paradip, India. Fire out of control and crew has abandoned:

PS> All crew rescued. One suffered serious burns.

Still burning. Being towed away from Sri Lankaā€™s coastline and towards deep water:

Towed away from the environment??

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Unless they have a way to launch it to outer space they are just towing it to a different environment, one where it might cause less damage to the coastal environment if it all goes badly.

I reckon you missed the joke.

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Do Norwegians make jokes?

Well, the OZians** made the joke ā€“ the Norwegian was just pointing to it. So the question remains unresolved. :wink:

**One of them is (was) an ENZEDD but they worked in OZ.

Ahhh, I missed the connection to that old bit of slapstick. A bit too subtle for me this morning.

Good one Bug ā€¦ there is humor in Norway!

Iā€™m not the arch typical Norwegian. It could be the Singaporean part of me.
Next time Iā€™ll remember to put (Joke) behind anything like that so it doesnā€™t cause any blushes.

Oh, yes. Watch ā€œThe Norsemenā€ on Netflix.

Cheers,

Earl

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The Indian Coast Guard and Russian warships that was in the area is assisting in fighting the fire on the VLCC New Diamond:

The fire on board New Diamond is reported as being doused and Salvage experts on the scene:

Good news I guess.

The fire reignited yesterday:

Chucking small bags of fire retardant seemed pretty ineffective.
Flames at the to of the stack would seem to indicated flammable materials being seriously heated below then flashing when it hits air.

Smit Singapore has been contracted as salvor. They already have personnel on the scene and tugs on the way:

Bunker oil appears to be leaking from the New Diamond:

Chronological updates on the situation:

Salvor are trying to patch up leaking bunker tank on New Diamond:

Hole in the bunker tank has been plugged:

Hey Guys! New here but a tanker broker/analyst!

Interesting incident this, The New Diamond is a 20yr old vessel, when most tankers usually have a 15+ year lifespan max. Current freight rates are extremely low on the main VLCC routes such as TD3C, just coming off the back of 30yr lows!! At these low rates and low oil demand because of Covid, vessels should be getting scrapped! but they just are notā€¦ As demand for these vessels are low, owners with older vessels have the best chance of getting business as older vessels are cheaper to fix so they are holding onto these old ships to gain some cash flowā€¦

Perhaps this fire is a sad reminder as to the dangers of these old ā€˜end of lifeā€™ vessels still being usedā€¦

Let me know what you think!!

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I donā€™t know why you believe older vessels are cheaper to fix. Typically, I donā€™t see that. What I do believe is that older vessels are more expensive to operate in terms of fuel costs due to the much more efficient engines that have come out recently.

Also, I think the typical commercial life for a VLCC is actually around 20 years. The economic life may be as short as 15 since that year requires the special survey, and a decision must be made whether or not continued investment can be recouped within another 5 or so years of life.

Just going off the fact fixtures for older vessels are usually cheaper? As you said they are more expensive to operate, less efficient so this is reflected in the price when fixed? Whether it be Voyage or TC.

Yeah i guess many vessels have been up to 20 in age, just in the past we start to see scrapping around 15years age on average, guess just different market conditionsā€¦