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Helge Ingstad: Norway's warship collides with tanker in fjord | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
Norway has evacuated all 137 crew from one of its warships after it collided in a fjord with a Maltese oil tanker. | |
Eight people were lightly injured in the collision in the Hjeltefjord near Bergen. The KNM Helge Ingstad frigate has been listing dangerously. | |
The warship had been returning from Nato military exercises. The tanker, the Sola TS, was slightly damaged and it appears that it did not spill oil. | |
The incident led to the shutdown of a major oil terminal and a gas plant. | |
What is known about Thursday's incident? | |
The two vessels collided at about 04:00 local time (03:00 GMT) as the frigate was sailing inner fjords for training, officials say. | |
The tanker had already left Equinor's Sture oil terminal with a cargo of North Sea crude, Reuters news agency reports. | |
"Due to the damage to the frigate it was moved to a safe place," Nato's Allied Maritime Command said in a statement. | |
The tanker, which has a crew of 23, returned to port for inspection. | |
It was not immediately clear what had caused the collision. | |
What about economic damage? | |
The Sture export oil terminal, as well as the Kollsnes gas plant and several offshore oilfields, were shut down as a precaution but resumed operation on Thursday afternoon, Equinor said in a statement. | |
The Sture terminal is a major tanker port, with almost 25% of Norway's oil production passing through the facility. | |
Meanwhile, the Kollsnes plant processes gas from several fields for a number of European countries, including the UK. | |
It was not immediately known how the temporary closure of the facilities would impact on wholesale gas prices. | |
An unnamed official told AFP news agency that a "small oil slick" had been detected from the frigate. | An unnamed official told AFP news agency that a "small oil slick" had been detected from the frigate. |
"It took on a lot of water and there is a real danger that it sinks where it is," the official said. | "It took on a lot of water and there is a real danger that it sinks where it is," the official said. |