Incident management support

During the night of 2nd to 3rd March, the Russian-registered LNG tanker Arctic Metagaz, en route from Russia to Port Said in Egypt, was hit by a series of explosions and caught fire while in the Mediterranean Sea, between Malta and Libya. The vessel was badly damaged and began to drift slowly towards the Libyan coast. In addition to any remaining LNG (liquefied natural gas), whose volume had yet to be estimated, the vessel had marine diesel and heavy fuel oil on board, also in unknown quantities. CEDRE’s duty team provided information to EMSA, DG-ECHO, REMPEC (through the Mediterranean Assistance Unit of which CEDRE is a member) as well as the French authorities (SGMer, CoFGC, French Navy).

The information provided focused primarily on LNG, its transportation and storage, its behaviour in the event of a spill at sea, the fire and explosion risks, and the potential environmental impact. This data was taken from studies and reports by CEDRE. We then provided the ship’s plans, which included details of its bunker tank capacity. Finally, we discussed the possibilities for modelling the drift of the tanker and any slicks of fuel in the area.

The vessel was taken in tow off the coast of Libya and towed out to the open sea, where it was abandoned. On 2nd April, the Libyan authorities relaunched efforts to manage the situation by sending a patrol vessel and a specialist diving team on site in an attempt to regain control of the vessel.