With fleet sizes growing ever larger in a period of loss-making freight rates. With fleet sizes growing ever larger in a period of loss-making freight rates, there have been worries that the quality of tanker operations could fall.

INTERTANKO records all tanker incidents reported by Lloyd's Maritime Intelligence service, and we find it encouraging that the number of incidents has fallen, with no major pollution incidents in 2011. There had been speculation that safety could suffer because of the low freight rates, but we are happy to report that despite this speculation, we have recorded a reduction in the number of incidents in 2011 by 27 compared to 2010.

It is also extremely encouraging to see that the number of fatalities reported for 2011 is the lowest since the turn of the century. We have recorded 13 fatalities in 2011 compared to 29 in 2010.

Three died and two were missing as a spark set off explosions on a 100,227 dwt 1998-built tanker on 31 Dec while repairing at Fujairah port. Some 105 local repair workers and crew were on board when tanker was hit by three blasts erupting at the aft of the ship, causing damage to its engine room, living quarters and bridge. The fire may have been caused by welding work but the cause of several explosions remains unclear. Fujairah port officials said that the vessel had been certified as having been gas-free.

Two crew members were missing when a 2,400 dwt 1994-built tanker laden with sulphuric acid capsized near Sankt Goarshausen while bound downstream in the River Rhine. Four people were still missing when a 5,252 dwt 1966-built chemical tanker and a tug collided at Puerto Villeta, Paraguay River. One crewman was killed while battling an engine room blaze on a 1980-built 18,012 dwt product tanker 25 miles off the coast of Marica, Rio de Janeiro. One crewman suffered severe injuries and later died in hospital as a 4,000 dwt tanker suffered a chemical explosion while alongside at Antwerp.

Only some relatively small oil spills were reported in 2011. About 200 litres of lightweight diesel leaked into the sea due to a collision when a 871 dwt 2005-built product tanker collided with another tanker at Macao. A 7,000 dwt 1985-built molasses tanker came in contact with an anchor-handling tug in Vung Tau, spilling more than 343 cubic metres of petrol into the sea. The other few spills reported in connection with tanker accidents were smaller, and a couple of them were related to bunkering.

Some 55% of the incidents reported involved tankers below 10,000 dwt, which means an incident rate (incident/number of tankers) of 0.015. The incident rate was highest for tankers 10,000-29,999 dwt (0.024). For the large sizes, 30,000-100,000 dwt, it was 0.015 and for tankers above 100,000 dwt the figure was 0.013.

About 54% of the incidents involved tankers built in 2000 and later. The incident rate was also highest for tankers built in the 2000s (0.021), whereas it was 0.015 for tankers built in the 1980s/90s and 0.012 for tankers built before 1980, i.e. the older tankers apparently fared best. This is contrary to the policy of some charterers, who seemingly try and avoid tankers above 15 years old.

Some 65% (53) of the Hull & Machinery incidents engine related and 5 were hull related of which one was serious. A 72768 dwt 2004 built product tanker sought port at Cork after reporting a crack in the deck at midships. There were also 7 losses of electrical power or black outs. The rest of the Hull & Machinery incidents were due to technical problems with steering, rudder and others.

We recorded altogether 6 incidents related to adverse weather. We also recorded 5 explosions onboard tankers among the 15 Fire & Explosion incidents.

All in all, most incidents reported were relatively minor with minimal damage and no pollution nor fatalities.