INVESTIGATIONS are under way following a collision off Singapore on Friday morning that sparked fire on both a Hafnia product tanker and an aging dark fleet* very large crude carrier.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said it was alerted on July 19 at about 0615 hrs to fires on board the Singapore-flagged tanker Hafnia Nile (IMO: 9766217) and the São Tomé and Príncipe-flagged tanker Ceres I (IMO: 9229439), located about 55km northeast of Pedra Branca within Singapore’s maritime search and rescue region.

The Automatic Identification System signals of the two tankers showed their positions were adjacent.

In a statement, the vessel operator Hafnia confirmed the collision, adding that all 22 crew members on board Hafnia Nile have been safely rescued and transferred to the shore. The cause of the incident was not explained.

“There is no information on pollution as of now. Our primary focus at this time is the wellbeing of our crew members, as well as addressing any potential environmental impact resulting from this incident,” said the company.

The MPA said the 40 crew members of Ceres I were also accounted for. Among them, 14 were rescued by a passing supply vessel, while the remaining 26 are currently conducting fire-fighting operations on board.

“Salvage and fire-fighting assets have been arranged by both vessel owners to support the fire-fighting efforts and subsequent towage of the vessels to safety. Navigational traffic is not affected,” said the authority. 

The 74,189 dwt Hafnia Nile’s last port call was Huelva in Spain. It had made a brief anchorage stop in Singapore on Thursday after transiting the Malacca Strait.

The 2001-built Ceres I, meanwhile, has long been used for facilitating Iranian trade, engaging in storage and ship-to-ship transfers, based on information collated by Lloyd’s List.

It also appears on Lloyd’s List Intelligence’s dark fleet* list.

According to lobby group United Against Nuclear Iran, the VLCC has been used to ship sanctioned crude from Iran, Venezuela and Russia.

The area where it was anchored is known to be used by about 20 dark fleet tankers for subterfuge transfers of Iranian oil, often while AIS is switched off or the tankers are spoofing their location to obfuscate their activities.

Ceres I has previously been identified as engaging in probable AIS spoofing activity by Lloyd’s List Intelligence’s Seasearcher Advanced Risk & Compliance platform. 

Vessel-tracking data indicates that Ceres I appeared to have its AIS switched on at the time of the accident, but the signals showed an irregular pattern not consistent with a tanker at anchorage.

The beneficial owner information of the ship is unknown. Its registered owner is Hong Kong-based Ceres Shipping Limited and it is managed by Shanghai Prosperity Ship Management, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence data.

These firms could not be immediately reached for comment.

Vessel-tracking data shows Ceres I has long stayed anchored off Singapore and east Malaysia’s Outside Port Limits, but would occasionally voyage into Chinese ports, including those in Shandong province, home to many independent refineries known as Shandong teapots.

The ship had changed flags multiple times over the past few years, from Libya in 2019 to Panama in 2020, then to São Tomé and Principe since January 2021. Its current P&I insurer is unclear.

The incident comes amid growing concerns among regulators and the industry about safety risks posed by dark fleet tankers, which are considered to be in poor condition, lack maintenance and have inadequate insurance coverage.

They are also known to often engage in deceptive practices such as AIS-switch offs and ship-to-ship transfers to dodge sanctions, increasing the risk of accidents at sea.

* Lloyd’s List defines a tanker as part of the dark fleet if it is aged 15 years or over, anonymously owned and/or has a corporate structure designed to obfuscate beneficial ownership discovery, solely deployed in sanctioned oil trades, and engaged in one or more of the deceptive shipping practices outlined in US State Department guidance issued in May 2020. The figures exclude tankers tracked to government-controlled shipping entities such as Russia’s Sovcomflot, or Iran’s National Iranian Tanker Co, and those already sanctioned.

Download our explainer on the different risk profiles of the dark fleet here