Three missing, 25 rescued from tanker ablaze off Malaysia

The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) said it received an alert on Monday that fire had broken out at 4pm on the Gabon-registered vessel 37.5 nautical miles northeast of Tanjung Sedili.

Two vessels in the vicinity rescued 23 of the 28 crew onboard while an MMEA vessel sent to the scene picked-up two seafarers from the water. According to the Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) 18 of the crew were rescued by the tanker Enola.

Three seafarers from the stricken tanker remain missing.

The MPA named the tanker involved in the fire as the Gabon-registered Pablo. The Equasis database lists the Pablo as a 1997-built, 96,773 dwt tanker.

Owner and manager are listed Pablo Union Shipping registered in the Marshall Islands with ownership and management transferred to the single ship company in early April. At the beginning of April the vessel changed name from Mockingbird when it was also reflagged with Gabon, its previous flag listed as “unknown”.

The tanker was reported in the Malaysian press to be enroute from China to Singapore.