19 July 2019
On 13 June the tanker vessel Front Altair, owned by the Norwegian maritime operator Frontline, came under attack in the Strait of Hormuz while transporting a cargo of naphtha – a petrochemical raw material - purchased by CPC. The ship suffered damage from explosive devices and a subsequent fire, but did not sink. The degree of damage to both ship and cargo remains to be clarified, as does the identity of the attackers.
The vessel was chartered by CPC’s supplier and the vendor of the cargo, Ocean Energy, and is flagged in the Marshall Islands. The 23-man crew, none of whom were Taiwan nationals, abandoned ship and were rescued without coming to harm. The 75,000 tons of naptha constituting the cargo was carried under CFR delivery terms and had been loaded on 11 June in the UAE port of Ruweis; the original source of the naptha was the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).