Kharg is a continental
island in the Persian Gulf belonging to Iran. The island is located 25 km (16
mi) off the coast of Iran and 483 km (300 mi) northwest of the Strait of
Hormuz. Kharg is a busy sea port for the
export of oil and extends Iranian territorial sea claims into the Persian Gulf
oil fields. As refineries and traders await clarity on whether they will be
able to make reductions in their crude purchases from Iran or be forced to stop
buying from the OPEC producer, Chile has imported its first Iranian oil cargo
in at least 16 years.
Shipping data last Friday
showed the Portugal-flagged oil tanker Monte Toledo sailing through the Oman
Gulf towards the Pacific port of San Vicente, in Chile. The Suezmax-class
tanker, with capacity to carry 1 million barrels of oil, left Iran’s Khark port
on June 2, Kallanish Energy reports. The revival of trade between Iran and
Chile may pave the way for future shipments, as the Persian nation is expected
to face sanctions which would dent its exports to European refineries.
For the not so well
informed, oil is transported in tanker ships.
A tanker is a ship designed to
transport or store liquids or gases in bulk. Major types of tankship include
the oil tanker, the chemical tanker, and gas carrier. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude
tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined
crude oilfrom its point of extraction to refineries. Oil tankers are often classified by their
size as well as their occupation. The size classes range from inland or coastal
tankers of a few thousand metric tons of deadweight (DWT) to the mammoth ultra
large crude carriers (ULCCs) of 550,000 DWT. Dead Weight Tonnage (DWT) is the measure
of weight when it comes to tankers.
Now this tanker named ‘Rise
Dignity’ IMO: 9221970, Panama flagged -
DWT : 160183 built in 2001 – that called
up at Chennai is in Port for wrong reasons.
Pic credit: www.marinetraffic.com/ (the news below is reproduced from Times of
India Chennai edition).
When the
four trainee sailors set sail on a giant oil tanker named Rise Dignity from Khark, last month, they thought their
career had finally taken off. They were to set out on a long voyage to Chennai
and back carrying crude oil. The work was tough, they did the most difficult of
the jobs - cleaning the tanks. The hardship did not deter them as, if they did
well, they could use the experience to get promotions and better jobs. However,
the dream turned sour, just a month into the journey.
The men
found out that their names were not on the crew list, a gross violation of
maritime and immigration rules. The names were initially on the list but were
apparently deleted when a few experienced trainees joined them. But the sailors
were not informed till the time the ship was about to enter Indian waters. “There
was a safety meeting on board two weeks ago. It was at that time that the
authorities told us that our names were not on the crew list. The captain told
us that it was not a problem and that they will take care of us,” said one of
the sailors who was rescued after a detailed immigration inspection when the
ship docked at Chennai port on Saturday. But what frightened them was the
instruction that “they should hide inside the engine room when the ship reaches
a port”. This meant that their stay on board the ship was illegal and if caught
at a foreign port they will be trapped and the shipping company need not pay
them compensation because they did not exist on the ship as per the documents.
“I mustered
courage and called up my relative when the ship was somewhere near
Lakshadweep,” said Thejus from Kerala. Sources said rescuing them was a
difficult task. “The cadets of the ship were moving them from one location to
another to avoid detection”, said an official. Enquiries revealed that every
time the team of immigration officials entered the engine room, they were moved
out from another side and were taken to some other room. “It was like a cat and
mouse game for almost an hour,” said a source. The sailors were also locked
inside a room for a brief while with a cadet standing guard outside and meeting
the immigration officials.
The striking
news is 4 Indians, whose names were not
included on the crew list and who were made to hide in the engine room of a
Panama-registered oil tanker, were rescued at Chennai port yesterday after one of the four men called a relative.
The men included a Tamil Nadu resident.
Rise
Dignity, operated by a Hong Kong-based company, docked at the city port around
10.30am. It was carrying crude oil and had arrived from the Iranian port of
Khark after beginning the voyage from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. A team
of immigration officials boarded the ship and began combing the entire ship the
size of a 10-storey building. The vessel’s manifest, the official document
listing the cargo, passengers and crew on board, had 36 crew members including
two people from Pakistan. Throughout the search, deck cadets and a trainee
fitter kept moving the Indians from one location to another to prevent
detection. Finally, after the officials confronted him with specific
information, the ship’s master presented Thejus P from Kerala, Prakash from
Tamil Nadu, Suresh from Andhra Pradesh and Punit from Uttar Pradesh.
The port
authorities had stopped unloading of oil briefly and the immigration
authorities detained the master, while the rescued sailors are expected to be
handed over to the city police for release after their statements are recorded.
Chief immigration officer said, “The ship declared 36 crew members but we found
four more. The Indians have their passports and they said they did not know
that they were not included in the crew list.” Mails sent to Atlantic Shipping
Pvt Ltd, the agent concerned, and Hong Kong-based Far East Ship Managment,
which operates the vessel, did not elicit a response till the time of going to
print.
Chennai Port
officials said this was the first time such a case had been detected here, that
too from a huge oil tanker. Sources said the masters of small cargo ships
sometimes took the risk of taking people on board without adding them to the
ship’s manifest the directorate general of shipping, said that he was awaiting
instructions to start checking about the sailors. K Sreekumar, inspector with the International
Transport Workers Federation (ITF), said this was a serious crime and required
a detailed probe by the immigration authorities, the mercantile marine
department and police to find out whether this was rampant on other ships too.
“The four sailors have not done anything wrong. They should be released. The
ship should be allowed to go only after the men are compensated and their
pending wages are given,” he said. Experts in the field said bringing people
who were not included in the manifest was a crime and could pose security
risks.
With regards
– S. Sampathkumar
22nd
July 2018.
No comments:
Post a Comment