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August 20, 2009

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Search on for Chinese crew

A TANKER carrying 58,000 tons of naphtha was still burning yesterday, nearly 24 hours after a collision with a cargo ship in the Strait of Malacca, and had started to leak fuel, Malaysian officials said.

Officials feared the possibility of a spill of naphtha, saying firemen were cooling the ship's storage tank to prevent a blast.

The search continued for nine of the tanker's 25-member Chinese crew. The others have been rescued.

Oil traders said the Cargill-chartered tanker, Formosaproduct Brick, was shipping the cargo of naphtha, a petrochemical feedstock, from the United Arab Emirates to Daesan and Yosu in South Korea.

The police chief of Port Dickson in central Malaysia said that the Liberian-registered ship was listing but there was no immediate danger that it would sink.

"Our biggest concern now is the possibility that the cargo could spill," said Mazlan Othman.

He added that 16 Chinese sailors were rescued, but nine others remain missing.

A spokeswoman for the Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency said the vessel was drifting and still ablaze, 24 hours after the collision with the Ostede Max, a British-registered bulk carrier.

"The shipping lanes are not affected now because we pulled the tanker away," she said.

Some 70,000 vessels use the waterway, that separates Indonesia from Malaysia, annually.

Traders said the naphtha was destined to be supplied to South Korean end users - Honam Petrochemical, LG Chem and Yeochun Naphtha Cracking Center.

"The barrels were meant to arrive in South Korea in second-half August, but I doubt there will be any major impact. Inventory is not that low (in South Korea)," said a trader.





 

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