TANKER SPILLING OIL AFTER WRECK

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 22, 1993                   TAG: 9301220101
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: SINGAPORE                                LENGTH: Short
TANKER SPILLING OIL AFTER WRECK
A supertanker laden with 78 million gallons of crude oil, ablaze after a collision with another ship, began spilling oil Thursday into the sea off the northern tip of Indonesia, shipping officials said.
The 254,000-ton Maersk Navigator was drifting after its 24-person crew abandoned the tanker in the Andaman Sea near the northern entrance to the Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and the Indonesian island of Sumatra, said a statement from the ship's agents, A.P. Moller Singapore PTE. Ltd.
The crew was picked up by a passing German container ship and reported to be safe.
The accident was the latest in a series involving big oil tankers recently.
Saturday, the tanker Kihnu ran aground off the Estonian coast in the Gulf of Finland, spilling part of its 420,000-gallon cargo.
Two weeks ago, a slick spread around Britain's Shetland Islands after the tanker Braer ran aground and broke up in heavy seas, spilling 26 million gallons of oil.
That followed a Dec. 2 accident off La Coruna, Spain, in which the tanker Aegean Sea ran aground and spilled 24 million gallons of light crude.
The Maersk Navigator was carrying a full load of crude from Oman to Japan for General Sekiyu Co., an affiliate of Exxon.
The tanker collided with the Singapore-registered Sanko Honour at 3 a.m. about 60 miles off Banda Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra. Fire on the 96,545-ton Sanko Honour, which was empty, was later extinguished.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB