Port or tanker
Solomon Trader — grounding and Kangava Bay fuel-oil spill
4 February 2019
Kangava Bay, Rennell Island, Solomon Islands
What happened
The cargo ship Solomon Trader grounded in poor weather associated with Cyclone Oma while loading bauxite at Rennell Island. A port-side fuel tank ruptured and released IFO 380, contaminating about five kilometers of Kangava Bay shoreline near the East Rennell UNESCO World Heritage Site. The remote location and continuing bad weather delayed response work. Remaining oil was transferred to a barge, divers addressed sunken oil and shoreline clean-up continued until 26 July 2019. The actual spill quantity was not established.
When cited sources give different casualty, damage or spill figures for this event, they’re reported side by side above rather than merged into one number. See how confidence levels work.
- Evidence
- Documented
- Confidence
- High
- Infrastructure
- Port or tanker
- Latitude
- -11.6500°
- Longitude
- 160.3500°
Attribution
Responsibility has not been established in the cited reporting.