Explosion and Fire on Vietnamese Tanker Kills One Engineer

[Brief] One crew member is missing after an explosion and fire aboard a chemical tanker near the Dung Quat port in Vietnam. It marks the second major incident in recent months near the Dung Quat oil refinery.

A local official for the Quang Ngai Maritime Port said that 7,631 dwt Mekongtrans 01 had a problem after receiving 7,000 m3 DO oil at the export port at the Dung Quat oil refinery. The 13-year-old vessel had sailed for Can Tho when on the evening of February 19, the captain radioed to report an explosion and fire on board in the forward section of the vessel. Media reports are attributing it to an electrical shock.

Officials from the Quang Ngai Maritime Port informed cargo ships and fishing vessels operating in the vicinity to search for missing crew members. Also the Regional Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center and the local Coast Guard dispatched ships to the scene to provide assistance and search for the crew.

Approximately 40 minutes after reporting the fire, the ship's captain announced reported that the fire had been brought under control. A search released that one of the 19 crew on board, a 28-year-old engineering had gone missing.

The SAR team reports that it has not been able to locate the missing engineer.

Mekong Petroleum Transportation JSC headquartered in Can Tho City operates this vessel and a second tanker.

Last September, a major explosion tore open the port side of another product tanker at the port of Dung Quat. Divers later located the body of one crewmember that had been killed in the blast.

(Image of the Dung Quat refinery in Vietnam -  Haisonputin photo CC BY 3.0 license)