Blast reported on oil tanker off Libyan coast

A tanker laden with more than one million barrels of oil suffered an onboard explosion while underway some 80 nautical miles off the coast of Libya on Friday, June 27.

The engine room on the Marshall Islands-flagged, 158,000DWT Vilamoura then became flooded, according to a spokesperson for Greek ship management company TMS Tankers.

The spokesperson has assured that the incident did not result in any injuries or pollution and that the tanker is being towed across the Mediterranean Sea to Greece for a damage assessment to be conducted.

Maritime security consultancy Vanguard said that Vilamoura had visited two ports in Russia in 2024 and that the ship's port calls in Russia may have had some bearing on the explosion off Libya.

Vanguard added that there are also unconfirmed reports that the explosion that damaged Vilamoura was caused by a limpet mine.

Three anonymous sources had earlier stated that timer-activated limpet mines triggered explosions that damaged two crude oil tankers earlier this year.