The story of the 2023 explosion of the tanker Pablo is not easily forgotten. It was an event that reminded us how thin the line is between routine and tragedy at sea.
The explosion of the tanker PABLO in May 2023 had a tragic outcome, as all three missing crew members were found unconscious, at a time when the captain thought they were trapped but alive!
Off the coast of Malaysia, in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, an explosion on the large, aged tanker Pablo tore open its deck like a sardine can and caused a fire whose smoke covered the sky.
It was a tragic accident that could have been a much greater disaster.
The ship, registered in Gabon, with a carrying capacity of about 700,000 barrels of crude oil, was coming empty from the South China Sea, after unloading its cargo in China.
Of the 28-member crew, 25 were rescued by passing vessels. The explosion occurred just beyond the busy waters of Singapore.
The Aframax-class crude oil tanker Pablo had been spotted in Iranian waters a few months before the incident, thus highlighting the risk posed by the dark fleet or “ghost” fleet of aging ships transporting oil around the world.
Following the wave of sanctions that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – including the price caps imposed by the Group of Seven, aimed at limiting the Kremlin’s oil cash inflow – observers in the oil trading community reported the purchase of hundreds of old tankers by unknown buyers.
But for the regional maritime authorities, the headache had just begun. There was little information about the ship’s owner. The ship is owned by a company registered in the Marshall Islands, whose fleet has no other ships, nor a trace of insurance. Both are vital for the cleanup operation to begin.
With limited details about who was responsible for this ship, there was no one to be held accountable at the moment it was burning just 40 nautical miles from Malaysia’s Pulau Tinggi island. Oil, possibly from the wreck, has been reported washing up on the shores of Indonesia.
The cause of the fire remained unclear. Often, insurance companies, salvage companies, and various intermediaries begin to deal with the situation within hours of it occurring. This case, however, was completely different.
Filmed from the bridge of the VLCC supertanker ENOLA (9251951) some 1.7 nautical miles away, here are the immediate few seconds following the explosion of the Aframax tanker PABLO (9133587) in Riau archipelago. You can see very large parts of her deck flying off to the sides. /k4UIjkriCs
— , Inc. (@TankerTrackers) May 2, 2023
