Japanese tanker was damaged in collision, UAE official says

A Japanese oil tanker owned by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd was damaged by a collision, a UAE official said, contradicting an earlier report it was hit by a wave after an earthquake.

It was too early to rule out what caused yesterday’s collision, Moosa Murad, director of the Port of Fujairah, said at a press conference. “We don’t know with what. It could be a mine, it could be a submarine.”

The M. Star, a very large crude carrier, suffered an about 60-centimeter (24-inch) breach under one of its lifeboats and had no “ingress” of water, according to a report filed by tanker Captain Mathew Manoj to the Fujairah harbor master. The extent of repairs will become clearer in two to three days, Murad said.

The ship is anchored 10 miles off Fujairah in the U.A.E. after the incident near the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. The Strait is the main transit point for tankers hauling oil from producers including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq and Kuwait.

The damage was not caused by an earthquake “in any way,” Murad said. The UAE official news agency WAM reported yesterday that the tanker was damaged by “a high wave that resulted from an earthquake.”

Earthquakes were recorded in Iran’s Hormozgan province, along the Strait on July 27 and July 28, according to data on the website of the Tehran-based International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology. (Bloomberg)