The U.S. Coast Guard told POLITICO that investigators will arrive in Britain “to conduct the investigation over the coming days.”Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

North Sea oil tanker collision: What do we know? – POLITICO

11 Mar 2025, 16:10 by Karl Mathiesen · POLITICO

LONDON — A 59 year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of “gross negligence manslaughter” after two ships crashed in the North Sea, 56 kilometers off the British coast, local police said.

U.K. and international authorities are facing urgent questions about what went wrong and how bad the impact could be. Could there be an ecological calamity on Britain’s eastern beaches? And why did the two ships collide? Here is what we know so far:

What happened?

The Stena Immaculate, a U.S.-flagged tanker carrying 220,000 barrels of jet fuel, reportedly for the American military, was struck while anchored offshore on Monday morning by the Solong, a cargo ship sailing under a Portuguese flag.