Kilometre-long oil slick left by burning oil tanker off Sri Lanka
09 September, 2020
An Indian coast guard aircraft sprayed a special chemical on a patch of diesel fuel near a huge oil tanker off Sri Lanka’s coast where firefighters are battling a fresh blaze that broke out two days after a youthful fire was extinguished, the navy said.
The MT New Diamond is carrying almost 2 million barrels of crude oil and officials have warned of possible massive environmental harm to Sri Lanka’s coast if the ship leaks or explodes.
Navy spokesman Capt. Indika de Silva said the brand new fire started Monday evening and reached the magnitude of the prior blaze. Firefighters have contained it nonetheless it continues to be burning, he said.
High winds, extreme temperatures on the ship and sparks reignited it, the navy said, adding that so far there is no threat of a crude oil leak or of the fire spreading in to the oil storage area.
The navy said the original fire began in an engine room boiler and did not spread to the oil storage area.
However, it said “a diesel patch” have been spotted in the ocean about one kilometer (0.6 mile) from the ship. The patch may very well be diesel fuel from the ship, it said. The ship has about 1,700 tons of diesel fuel to power its engines.
An Indian coast guard aircraft sprayed a chemical on the patch to reduce harm to the marine environment, the navy said.
Ships and helicopters from Sri Lanka and neighboring India are taking part in the firefighting efforts.
The original fire killed one Filipino crew member and injured another, but 21 other crew members escaped uninjured.
Twenty were taken to the southern port city of Galle on Tuesday, while the captain remained on a ship close to the tanker to help firefighting efforts, de Silva said.
The tanker is approximately 30 nautical miles (55 kilometers) off the coast, the navy said.
The tanker was transporting crude oil from the port of Mina Al Ahmadi in Kuwait to the Indian port of Paradip, where in fact the state-owned Indian Oil Corp. includes a refinery.
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