Amid surging supply of crude and the world’s biggest traffic jam of tankers, we suspect more images like the following will be seen going forward. A Russian tanker has caught fire in the Caspian Sea near the territorial waters of Turkmenistan, leaving one dead.
The Palflot-2 vessel in distress is currently drifting in Turkmenistan’s territorial waters some 800 kilometers from Russia’s nearest port, Astrakhan.
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The Southern Regional Center of Russia’s Emergency Ministry has confirmed the fire on Palflot-2 tanker claimed the life of a ship’s mechanic, reportedly a citizen of Kazakhstan.
“We confirm the death of a single person. It was a mechanic. There were 11 crewmembers onboard, and 10 of them have been evacuated by a vessel belonging to the same company. They will be delivered to Astrakhan,” a source in the Emergency Ministry said.
Crew members of the Palflot-2 are citizens of Russia and Kazakhstan.
According to the Emergency Ministry, the tanker was not transporting any oil products and its tanks are filled with seawater as ballast.
The Emergency Ministry and the company owning the burning tanker agreed that extinguishing the fire on a vessel drifting so far from Russian shores is unpractical. It has been decided the ship should burn out, and its fate will be decided later.
So, on the bright side (for conservationists), the ship’s tanks were loaded with seawater only (as ballast), but for crude bulls this does nothing to ease the global oil glut…
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