{"id":901,"date":"2026-10-04T11:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T11:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regulasshipping.com\/blog\/chemical-tanker-xanthia-collides-with-two-cargo-ships-off-alesund\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T11:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T11:33:11","slug":"chemical-tanker-xanthia-collides-with-two-cargo-ships-off-alesund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regulasshipping.com\/blog\/chemical-tanker-xanthia-collides-with-two-cargo-ships-off-alesund\/","title":{"rendered":"Chemical tanker Xanthia collides with two cargo ships off \u00c5lesund"},"content":{"rendered":"

Norway\u2019s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre for southern Norway received a mayday over coastal radio at 01:37 local time on Sunday, 4 October. NRK, writing through the morning and updating at 13:20, said a tank ship and two cargo ships had collided in Valderhaugfjorden, on the eastern side of Valder\u00f8ya toward Hamn\u00f8ya, off \u00c5lesund. M\u00f8re og Romsdal police named the three hulls as Xanthia, Hav Frakt and Bergfjord. No one was injured. Thirty people were on the three ships. One cargo ship, Bergfjord, later took on water at the quay. The cause has not been established.<\/p>\n

That is the working primary. Sunday is a named three-ship coastal collision in a confined Norwegian fjord, not a war-risk file and not a pollution event. The useful facts for a DPA, a North Sea master and a P&I desk are the 01:37 mayday, the three named hulls, the sixteen-plus-seven-plus-seven crew count, the poor-visibility report, Bergfjord\u2019s water ingress, and the fact that the Norwegian Maritime Authority will not let the two ships at the quay sail until they have been inspected. Do not invent a COLREG finding, and do not treat an oil-tanker label as a cargo manifest.<\/p>\n

What HRS, the police and the owners actually said<\/h2>\n

HRS watchstander Eilin Furre told NRK and VG that large ships were involved, that there were no reported injuries, that a rescue helicopter had been stood down because no evacuation was needed, and that KNM Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue and civilian boats had joined the first response. Two of the ships later proceeded to berth under their own power. The third anchored in the fjord. Rescue leader Kjetil Hagen said all three were under way when they hit: two coming from the south, one from the north. He also said the area had reported poor visibility and darkness. Port News, filing the English account at 12:27 UTC, put the three lengths between about 80 and 147 metres and said the collision was on the eastern side of Valder\u00f8ya toward Hamn\u00f8ya.<\/p>\n

Police operations leader Ragnvald Rasmussen named a tank ship and two cargo ships. He said some people on board had been breath-tested and that no intoxication had been found. He had no information that would indicate environmental damage and did not know whether a pilot had been on board. Incident commander Mathias Stemland said all three ships had material damage and that only one had taken on water. Investigative leader Hans Skovly said police were early in the file, taking statements and electronic tracks, and would not publish a sequence for fear of contaminating accounts. Operations leader Per \u00c5ge Ferstad said tracking from before and during the collision would be pulled later. The Accident Investigation Board Norway and the Norwegian Maritime Authority were notified. Acting NMA communications director Eivind Kallevik said inspectors were boarding the two ships at the \u00c5lesund quay on Sunday and that those hulls could not sail on until the inspection was finished. The Norwegian ship at anchor would be followed by DNV. Safety to proceed, he said, is the present object. Sequence is for the police and, later, the investigation board.<\/p>\n

Utkilen, which operates Xanthia, said in a press statement first carried by Sunnm\u00f8rsposten and repeated by NRK that the ship had been sailing from Elnesv\u00e5gen to F\u00f6rby with liquid stone used mainly in paper production. There were no injuries, no water ingress and no discharge to the sea. The ship was safely at anchor while circumstances and possible damage were assessed. Chief executive Siri-Anne Mj\u00e5tvedt told NRK that the necessary safety measures had been taken on board, that the company was cooperating with police and other authorities, and that looking after the crew was the first priority. Port News described Xanthia as a 17,031-dwt, 147.3-metre, Norwegian-flag chemical tanker, built in 2003, registered in the Norwegian International Ship Register, classed by DNV, and one of Utkilen\u2019s fifteen chemical tankers. Open particulars for IMO 9246152 match that hull: call sign LAUR5, port of registry Bergen, oil-and-chemical tanker. Police called her an oil tanker. Utkilen\u2019s cargo line is slurry, not a crude stem. Brief the cargo as the owner stated it. Do not invent a product tank list.<\/p>\n

Navigare Shipping & Logistics director \u00c1lvur H\u00f8jgaard told NRK that Hav Frakt had been heading north from Karm\u00f8y to Vester\u00e5len, that the event had not felt dramatic to his crew, and that experienced navigators who had sailed the area for years were on board. Fonnes Shipping chief executive Hans Petter Fonnes said he was in \u00c5lesund and otherwise declined to comment. Police said Hav Frakt, under the Faroese company Navigare, had seven people on board, and that Bergfjord, Dutch-flag and belonging to Fonnes Shipping, also had seven. Xanthia had sixteen. NRK later identified Bergfjord as the ship taking on water at the quay. The crew stayed on board. There was no evacuation.<\/p>\n

The three hulls, and what they are not<\/h2>\n

Keep the names on the police line and the IMOs on the matching file. Xanthia, IMO 9246152, is the named Utkilen chemical\/slurry tanker. Hav Frakt, open particulars IMO 9280706, MMSI 231856000, call sign OZ2196, is a 2005 Faroe-flag general cargo ship of about 88 by 13 metres; Navigare bought the former Hav Nordlandia from Arco in March and renamed her. Bergfjord, open particulars IMO 9166455, MMSI 246483000, call sign PEBS, is a 2000 Dutch-flag general cargo ship of about 2,451 gt and 3,697 dwt, 88 metres, registered in Delfzijl, owner Fonnes Rederi AS, ISM and commercial manager Fonnes Shipping AS. Those two IMOs are register matching, not a police circular. Do not merge the three into one casualty, and do not treat VG\u2019s early 2,000\u20132,500 gt colour as a substitute for the named tanker\u2019s 147 metres.<\/p>\n

Sunday sits on a confined-waters COLREG and SMS file, not on a war-risk desk. It is not a rewrite of Saturday\u2019s Liberia-flag Odesa port strike, not a Hormuz projectile product, and not a Gindara engine-room fire. The useful comparison inside the North Sea is ordinary night, poor visibility, three ships moving in a fjord with a crossing geometry \u2014 two southbound or northbound tracks meeting one opposite \u2014 and a chemical\/slurry tanker among them. HRS stood the helicopter down. That is a SAR fact. It is not a finding that the watch organisation was sound.<\/p>\n

Operational implications<\/h2>\n

A three-ship hit in Valderhaugfjorden is a bridge-resource and passage-plan event before it is a class survey. Masters already in the \u00c5lesund, Giske and Valder\u00f8y approaches need a written night-and-visibility plan that treats a 147-metre tanker and two 88-metre cargo ships as ships that can close inside the fjord faster than a VHF warning will sort them out. The police breath tests found no alcohol. That closes one line. It does not close lookout, speed, radar, AIS, or whether a pilot was required or used. NMA will not release the two ships at the quay until inspectors have been aboard. DNV has the tanker at anchor. Charterers who still stem Elnesv\u00e5gen slurry or the Karm\u00f8y\u2013Vester\u00e5len cargo run should treat Sunday as a delay and a condition survey, not as a free pratique.<\/p>\n

Managers who recognise IMO 9246152, 9280706 or 9166455 as theirs should assume flag, class, P&I and the Norwegian investigator will ask for the night orders, the watch composition, the last position fix before 01:37, the VDR or equivalent track, and whether the water-ingress party on Bergfjord was standing. Utkilen\u2019s no-spill, no-ingress line is the first notice of claim for Xanthia. Bergfjord\u2019s water at the quay is a different first notice. Do not put both on one form.<\/p>\n

Do not brief Sunday as proof that the fjord is closed, that a chemical tanker spilled, or that a COLREG fault has been assigned. The confirmed facts are three named ships under way, a 01:37 mayday, no injuries, one cargo ship taking water, material damage on all three, and a sailing stop until NMA or DNV says otherwise.<\/p>\n

What Operators Should Note<\/h2>\n