Tanker Collided with Oil Rig in North Sea
The tanker Elsa Essberger collided with unmanned oil rig Q1 with is no longer in use, at around 1820 UTC Dec 31 in North sea some 20 nm southwest of Den Helder, Netherlands.
The platform Q1 Halfway is not in use and according to the Coast Guard there were no people at the time of the collision. The plant built there in 1995 is part of an oil and gas field in the Dutch part of the North Sea off Den Helder.
In the collision the bow of the Elsa Essberger was damaged, but the cargo tanks remained completely intact, so there is no danger of outflow or leakage of the cargo.
It has been anchored at Callantsoog for the time being. The ship Elsa was on its way from Antwerp to Malmo in Sweden.