Indonesia Oil Tanker Fire Kills 10, Injures Dozens in Batam Shipyard — Second Fatal Blaze on Same Vessel in Five Months

At least ten workers were killed and more than twenty others injured early Wednesday when an oil tanker undergoing repairs caught fire and exploded at a shipyard on Indonesia’s Batam Island, authorities said.
The blaze broke out aboard the MT Federal II at around 4:00 a.m. local time (2100 GMT Tuesday) while the vessel was docked for maintenance at a facility in the Tanjunguncang seaport, Riau Islands province — roughly 20 kilometers south of Singapore.

According to Batam police chief Zaenal Arifin, sparks were seen in a storage area before flames engulfed the Indonesian-flagged vessel. “The fire was extinguished about an hour later, but unfortunately several workers were trapped on board,” Arifin told reporters. All victims were believed to be shipyard employees carrying out repair work.

Ten fatalities have been confirmed, and 21 people were hospitalized, four of them in critical condition with severe burns, said Riau Islands Provincial Police Chief Asep Safrudin. “It was followed by a powerful blast that prompted other workers to flee in panic,” he added.
The MT Federal II, built in 2009, was not carrying any oil cargo at the time of the incident, having been emptied ahead of the repairs. Authorities are now investigating the cause of the explosion and whether negligence by shipyard operator PT ALS played a role.

The tragedy marks the second deadly fire aboard the same vessel in less than five months. In June, four workers died and several others were injured in a similar blaze on the Federal II—an accident later attributed to welding sparks igniting residual gas in a storage compartment that had not been fully cleared. Two safety officers were named suspects in that earlier case for violating safety procedures.

The recurrence of such an incident on the same tanker has raised serious concerns about safety management and hazard control practices within Indonesia’s ship repair sector. Investigators are expected to scrutinize whether proper gas-freeing and hot work precautions were taken before the latest repairs began.

As of Wednesday evening, grief-stricken families gathered outside local hospitals awaiting news of their loved ones. The Indonesian National Police and the Ministry of Transportation have pledged a full inquiry to prevent similar disasters in the future.