Bright Artemis

The incident

On 14 August 2006, the Bright Artemis was transporting 250,000 tonnes of oil from the Persian Gulf to Japan when she received a distress signal from the cargo ship Amar and decided to come to the rescue. There was a strong wind. The cargo ship was thrown by a strong gust and hit the oil tanker. The hull of the Bright Artemis was torn open over an area of 5 m².

Two of the tanker’s tanks were damaged and leaked. The oil was rapidly transferred into the tanks which remained intact. The volume of oil released at sea was estimated at 4,500 tonnes.

The incident occurred far from the coast and the pollution was therefore not a threat to the shoreline. As the quantities were relatively small and far from land, Mitsui OSK Lines decided not to take action and to leave the marine environment and evaporation to eliminate the spill.