PUTRAJAYA – A “ghost ship” – or a ship without a crew – reported to be drifting in Vietnamese waters and a potential collision threat to a Petronas oil rig in Terengganu waters on Monday, has been towed to a safe location, according to the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA).
MMEA director-general Maritime Adm Datuk Mohd Zubil Mat Som said the agency received a report from an Indonesian shipping company that a ship called Limin Rosmina had lost its tow rope while pulling a crewless ship called Winposh Rampart at about 3.15pm on Monday.
According to him, the two ships involved were in Vietnamese waters at a point about 120 nautical miles from Kuala Terengganu and were en route from Matak (Indonesia) to Yang Pu (China).
He said in a statement yesterday that the tow rope had snapped due to bad weather, causing the Winposh Rampart to then drift into Malaysian waters.
“The risk assessment analysis found that the Winposh Rampart could potentially collide with Petronas’ Telok A oil rig and cause it to explode and trigger a life-threatening incident if no swift measures were taken to deal with it,” he said.
Therefore, he said the MMEA coordinated with Petronas to tow the Winposh Rampart to a safer location.
The assets involved in the operation were the maritime vessel Jujur and AW139 aircraft along with six members of the MMEA Special Action Team who were mobilised to the location of the ghost ship, while Petronas sent ships Icon Lotus and SK Pilot, he said.
He said the MMEA Special Action Team then synchronised operations with the AW139 aircraft to analyse the crisis and identify ways to stop the ship from drifting.
Zubil said team members were lowered from the AW139 aircraft aboard the Winposh Rampart at around 3.30pm yesterday to ready the ship to be towed by the Icon Lotus.
According to him, the Winposh Rampart is now being towed by the Icon Lotus to the Kemaman supply base in Terengganu, a journey expected to take almost 65 hours. – Bernama, January 5, 2022
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