Tanker blast not due to sabotage:PM

Tanker blast not due to sabotage:PM

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's state-owned oil company Petronas does
not suspect the explosion aboard a supertanker off Yemen was
caused by sabotage, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on
Tuesday.

The French-flagged supertanker Limburg, carrying 400,000
barrels of crude and chartered by Petronas Nasional Bhd, was
ablaze off the coast of Yemen after an explosion on Sunday, and
the ship's owners said they thought terrorists using a boat could
have been responsible.

"Petronas did not suspect any sabotage," Mahathir was quoted
by the official Bernama news agency as saying. Mahathir added
that the explosion could easily have been caused by a small fire
due to a short-circuit.

Petronas did not incur big losses from the fire as the cargo
had been insured, he said. --Reuters