A fire of still unknown origin broke out on Friday morning in the engine room of an oil tanker during loading operations at Equinor's Sture oil terminal in Norway, the company and local police said.
The first reports of smoke and fire from the engine room of the tanker Dubai Harmony came before noon local time on Friday, Norwegian media report.
There are 23 people on board the tanker, and they are helping in the efforts to extinguish the fire, local police representative Bjarte Rebnord told news outlet NTB.
The Sture oil terminal is closed, with only key personnel left. A total of 106 people were evacuated from the terminal, Rebnord said. The fire department of Øygarden is also on site to assist. The police and fire department say that the situation should now be under control.
"There is a fire in the machine room of a vessel laying in the Sture area. We do not know what caused the fire," a spokesman for Equinor told Reuters.
"The incident happened during loading of oil from Sture," the spokesman went on to add.
The Sture oil terminal, located 50 kilometers (31 miles) northwest of the city of Bergen, is a major tanker port for crude oil and receives crude from the fields Oseberg, Edvard Grieg, Ivar Aasen, and Grane.
It wasn't immediately clear if the incident will affect oil production from Norway's offshore fields.
At the end of last year, the Sture oil terminal was shut down as a precaution after an Aframax oil tanker traveling under a Maltese flag collided with a Norwegian frigate in the North Sea. In early November 2018, the collision resulted in all crew evacuated from the warship. There were 23 people on board of the Sola oil tanker. Most of them were evacuated as well, save for a crew to make sure that the oil does not leak.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More
U.S. Power and NatGas Prices Plummet to Below Zero
Ukrainian Drones Hit Major Rosneft Refinery in Russia
First Niger Oil Bound for China Blocked in West Africa Border Row
Gas Prices Likely to Keep Falling Ahead of Peak Driving Season
Drone Attacks Take Khor Mor Gas Field Offline, Claims Lives