Iranian Oil Tanker Burns For Third Day As Winds, High Waves Lash Rescuers
https://www.rigzone.com/news/wire/iranian_oil_tanker_burns_for_third_day_as_winds_high_waves_lash_rescuers-09-jan-2018-153065-article//?all=HG2 January 09, 2018
...The poor conditions, with strong winds, rain and waves as high as 3 metres (10 feet), frustrated efforts to tame the fire and search for the 31 remaining tanker crew members, the Ministry of Transport said in a statement on Tuesday.
The flames were forcing the South Korean Coast Guard's search and rescue team to stay as far as 3 miles (4.8 km) away from the tanker, two South Korean officials told Reuters.
The body of a crew member was found on Monday in the water near the tanker, China's transport ministry said. It had been handed over to the civil affairs bureau.
Concerns were growing that the tanker may explode and sink while a flotilla of 13 search and rescue vessels comb a 900-square-nautical-mile (3,100 sq km) area around the ship for the crew. The tanker hit a freight ship on Saturday night in the East China Sea, burst into flames and has been spilling oil....
...The Sanchi was carrying 136,000 tonnes of condensate, an ultra-light crude oil that becomes highly volatile when exposed to air and water, to South Korea....
..."We can't grasp the level of oil contamination at this moment. The cargo is still on fire, so it is hard to figure out if oil is being spilled," Park Sung-dong, an official from South Korea's Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, told Reuters....
...When condensate meets water, it evaporates quickly and can cause a large-scale explosion as it reacts with air and turns into a flammable gas, the ministry said on Monday.
Trying to contain a spill of condensate, which is extremely low in density, highly toxic and much more explosive than normal crude oil, may be difficult.
