Tanker That Exploded In North Sea Collision One Of 10 In U.S. Fuel Delivery Program

The Stena Immaculate, one of 10 vessels in a U.S. program to supply the U.S. armed forces with fuel during times of conflict or national emergency, is in flames after a collision in the North Sea. The incident comes amid growing concerns about America’s ability to sustain itself via sealift in a future fight.

The oil tanker, anchored near Hull, U.K., was carrying Jet-A fuel when the cargo ship Solong struck it, according to a radio transmission from the U.K.’s Humber Coastguard and a statement from the company managing the Stena Immaculate. The incident took place at about 10 a.m. local time, the Florida-based Crowley company told The War Zone in a statement. 

Stena Immaculate “sustained a ruptured cargo tank containing Jet-A fuel due to the collision,” a Crowley spokesperson told us. “A fire occurred as a result of the collision, and fuel was reported released. The Stena Immaculate crew abandoned the vessel following multiple explosions onboard. All Crowley mariners are safe and fully accounted for.”

Fire and rescue services reacted to a collision between the oil tanker Stena Immaculate and the cargo vessel Solong off the coast of the Humber Estuary on March 10, 2025. (Photo by Lee Whitaker/Getty Images) Getty Images

Video emerged on social media showing the Stena Immaculate ablaze.

The cause of the collision is unclear, however, it took place in heavy fog, Sal Mercogliano, a former Military Sealift Command (MSC) mariner and associate professor of history at Campbell University, told The War Zone. Mercagliano produced a YouTube video offering his insights about the incident which you can see below.

The Portuguese-flagged Solong left the Scottish port of Grangemouth on Sunday evening and was headed for Rotterdam, the Netherlands, according to the VesselFinder ship tracking website. The Stena Immaculate, bound for Killingholme in the U.K., was at anchor off the coast near the city of Hull after traveling from the Greek port of Agioi Theodoroi last month.

Stena Immaculate was built in China and named in 2017. In May 2023 it became one of three ships managed by the Florida-based Crowley company to enroll in the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Maritime Administration’s (MARAD) Tanker Security Program (TSP). The program was created to augment the U.S. Defense Department’s (DoD) logistics capabilities with U.S.-based product tankers.

The Stena Immaculate was named during a ceremony in China in 2017. (Stena Bulk)

The TSP was born under the Biden administration to establish a fleet of “active, commercially viable, militarily useful, privately owned product tank vessels of the United States that will meet national defense and other security requirements and maintain a United States presence in international commercial shipping,” according to DOT.

“The program will ensure the Department of Defense (DoD) has assured access to critically needed product tankers capable of loading, transporting, and storing on-station bulk petroleum refined products to support national economic security,” DOT explained.

“The TSP accomplishes two key maritime sealift objectives: it grows our U.S.-flagged fleet and it significantly expands our ability to deliver vital fuel supplies to support military missions across the globe,” then-Maritime Administrator Ann Phillips said in 2023. 

Under the TSP program, each tanker vessel enrolled receives a maximum $6 million per year payment, prorated monthly for qualified service as participants in the program, DOT noted. The vessels will operate in U.S. foreign commerce and be available for use by the United States during times of war or national emergency.

Ships qualifying for the TSP program have to be medium-range product tankers between 30,000-60,000 deadweight tons with a fuel-carrying capacity of 230,000 barrels or more, be less than 10 years of age, and be available to commit to an emergency preparedness agreement for the duration of the program’s authorization.

Stena’s Imperative and Immaculate; both of which have been selected for the Tanker Security Program. Crowley

The loss of 10% of the TSP fleet comes amid larger concerns about the U.S. ability to supply its forces around the globe by sea. U.S.-flagged tankers won’t be enough to meet DoD’s fueling needs in a future war, Rear Adm. Phillip Sobeck, head of the Military Sealift Command (MSC), warned last year.

“The game has changed under our feet,” Sobeck told an audience at the Navy League’s Sea Air Space 2024 symposium near Washington, D.C. He added that global partnerships that spanned industry and government would be necessary to answer China’s network of large tankers in event of a conflict. MSC needs these relationships not only to increase capacity in an emergency but also to benefit from their experience and feasibility assessments regarding moving bulk fuel.

MSC’s fleet of 140 ships can grow to more than 400 in a time of need, Sobeck said, referring to a surge capacity that involves U.S.-flagged commercial ships. 

As we reported in the past, data compiled by the Office of Naval Intelligence says that a growing gap in fleet sizes is being helped by China’s shipbuilders being more than 200 times more capable of producing surface warships and submarines. This is thanks to the dual-use nature of China’s massive shipyards. Its much larger maritime production footprint and commercial fleet size means that it can activate many more ships if need be during a time of war.

Highlighting concerns about the U.S. military’s sea lift capacity, the head of U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) told Congress last week that he wants to buy as many as 10 used shipping vessels to bolster the military’s Ready Reserve Force RRF fleet. Of the 46 ships in that fleet, 17 are more than 50 years old.

“We need to both build it here, and we actually need to buy used,” Air Force Gen. Randall Reed, Transcom’s commander, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “These ships are really, really old. The reliability of them [is] sometimes in question because of that. I take my hat off to the crews that are actually on them to keep them warm. But to give an idea of the state of the ships, some of these ships are still run by steam.”

The RORO cargo ship M/V Cape Isabel arrives in San Diego during a Turbo Activation exercise in 2017. (USAF)

In 2019, TRANSCOM, MARAD and MSC held a massive snap sealift exercise across the United States involving 28 of those ships. You can read more about that in our story here.

We reached out to Crowley, DOT and the Pentagon to find out more about who was going to receive the Stena Immaculate’s fuel, how much was on the ship, and how the apparent loss of this vessel will affect the TSP. Given the level of concern before this incident took place, this is unwelcome news to say the least.

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