2d incident involving an LNG tanker off coast stirs critics

The US Coast Guard aided a disabled tanker carrying liquefied natural gas early yesterday after it went adrift 16 miles northeast of Provincetown. It was the second time this year an LNG tanker broke down near the state's coastline.

Coast guard officials do not know what went wrong with the 920-foot tanker Suez Matthew. The tanker was coming from Trinidad with a crew of 31 people, headed to an LNG facility in Everett, when it lost its propulsion about 45 miles east of Boston at midnight Saturday.

Eventually, the Coast Guard and the tanker's crew were able to get the vessel moving by reactivating its boilers, which propel the tanker. The first boiler started up at 3:30 a.m., followed by the second one at 5:30 a.m.

The two groups then spent hours testing the system before the Coast Guard and two commercial tugs escorted the Matthew Suez to an anchorage spot in Broad Sound, not far from the LNG facility in Everett.

Petty Officer Lauren Jorgensen stressed in a telephone interview yesterday that the disabled tanker never presented a public safety risk. She said the Matthew Suez would not dock at the LNG facility in Everett until an inspection by the US Coast Guard determines the tanker is working fine.

The Matthew Suez is owned by Suez Energy and is operated by Hoegh Fleet Services in Norway.

Carol Churchill, spokeswoman for Distrigas of Massachusetts, a Suez Energy-owned company that operates the LNG facility in Everett, said in an interview last night that the tankers are safe.

"It's an unfortunate situation in that the ship lost its propulsion, but there was never a safety issue with the crew or cargo," Churchill said. "The tanker never lost its ability to communicate."

The Coast Guard and the company considered yesterday's incident to be less severe than another one in February. In that case, the LNG tanker Catalunya Spirit went adrift for hours off Cape Cod because a computer glitch caused the vessel to lose power. After the vessel was tugged to shore, it took workers several days to restart the boilers.

Nevertheless, the incident, like the one in February, raised concerns among critics. State Senator Anthony Galluccio, a Cambridge Democrat, said that even though yesterday's event happened near Provincetown, it was scary to think that a tanker could go adrift someday while traveling through the densely populated Boston Harbor. He said it highlights the importance of having LNG facilities offshore.

"The LNG folks will ensure us these tankers are impenetrable and extremely safe, but obviously when you have a ship adrift carrying ignitable fluids it's concerning," said Galluccio, who represents some neighborhoods along the harbor.

Edward Kelly, president of the city firefighters union, Local 718, renewed his organization's call for a more comprehensive response plan for a potential tanker accident in the harbor.

"A professional disaster analysis needs to be done," Kelly said. "In the reality of the world we live in, we are at war."

Dorothy Joyce, a spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino, said the city has worked closely with the Coast Guard, which is the lead safety agency for the harbor, in developing a response plan and that the city recently trained a civilian response team in Charlestown to handle any kind of harbor disaster.