A 328-foot-long gas carrier, on completion of her cargo operations, departed the Bataan port in Philippines in laden condition consisting in 2.217,253 MT of Propylene, planned en route to Fuzhou, China, for cargo discharging. On arrival at Pilotage Anchorage of Jiangyin port, Fuzhou, slight propylene leakage from the outlet of the cargo tank transfer pump no. 1 was noted and, despite the effort of the ship crew to activate all necessary emergency response actions putting wooden plug wedges, soaking with blanket rags and covering by cement, the leakage was not totally sealed due to high pressure.
The leakage was identified to be a crack in length of 3 cm located at the edge of the first weld seam of the pump outlet and, since the ship was loaded of propylene cargo, which is flammable and explosive, in order to minimize the risks, the Maritime and Port Authorities ordered to tow the ship to the anchorage for hazardous chemicals. Three sealing operation by injecting sealants without success and the gas carrier was forced to discharge her cargo by STS due to the possibility that the crack of the original leakage point might crack again in any subsequent operation could not be ruled out.
Based on the information received and Master declaration, the vessel faced very bad weather during sea passage from Bataan to Fuzhou. On arrival, deck crew noted smoke coming from the pump and ice formation which allegedly caused the crack iwo the pump.
The total claim was about USD 1,500,000 including the general average.
