Tanker collision off UK coast spills fuel, ignites blazes

A cargo ship crashed into an oil tanker off the UK’s east coast, causing fires, a jet-fuel spill, and leaving one person missing in one of the most significant maritime disasters near the country in many years.

The crew of the tanker Stena Immaculate “are safe and accounted for, with no reported injuries,” ship manager Crowley said in a statement on X.

The mariners earlier abandoned the vessel after multiple explosions, and it remains unclear how much fuel was spilled after at least one tank ruptured.

One crew member on container ship Solong was still missing and the search for them has been called off, the UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency said in a statement. Both ships remain on fire.

The Stena Immaculate, which was struck in the North Sea a few miles off the hUK’s east coast, was carrying about 220,000 barrels of jet fuel as part of a standard delivery while chartered by an organization supplying the US Navy, according to Crowley. If all that jet fuel spilled into the sea, that would be about 28,000 tonnes.

An assessment of the pollution is underway, the UK Coastguard said, and Crowley is working with agencies to initiate a “spill containment response.”

No oil pollution has been confirmed yet, but “countries will normally have their own national oil spill contingency plans and response systems already in place for incidents that happen in their waters,” a spokesperson for the International Maritime Organization said.

Greenpeace UK said it was too soon to assess the environmental impact. The extent of any damage will depend on the fuel carried by both ships and how much enters the water. Sea and weather conditions will also play an important role.

The type of jet fuel that’s leaked isn’t especially flammable, though it will burn while floating if the spill is big enough, said Alan Gelder, a senior analyst at consultancy Wood Mackenzie Ltd. If not on fire, the release will disperse through evaporation and wave action, which breaks the spill into small droplets that disperse and are broken down further by biological action, he said.

The biggest tanker spill in history was 287,000 tons from the Atlantic Empress off Tobago, West Indies, in 1979, according to figures from ITOPF data, a nonprofit that provides spill assistance and technical advice for such incidents.

There have also been other major UK spills. In 1967, the supertanker Torrey Canyon ran aground and leaked more than 119,000 tons off the country’s southwest coast.