Oil stops spilling from listing ship

[1]

The Coast Guard on Monday evening confirmed that oil has stopped spilling from the MSC Chitra. However, traces of oil have reached areas like Nariman Point, Alibaug, Uran and Thane Creek. The PM has asked the concerned authorities for a report on the collision and oil spill.

“On Saturday and Sunday oil was gushing out of the ruptured tanks, but on Monday morning it was oozing out and, fortunately, by evening the leakage had stopped,” said a Coast Guard officer involved in operations. MSC Chitra has eight tanks containing oil, of which two were ruptured. One tank had a capacity of 256 metric tonnes of fuel while the other had a capacity of 623 MT.
“But the tanks were not full as some oil had already been used,” added the officer.
The ship was carrying 2,626 metric tonnes of oil. The amount of oil on board is only for bunkering.
“The oil spill from the vessel has reduced to a certain extent and is moving in a northwesterly direction,” said Capt. Manohar Nambiar, chief public relations officer, defence, Mumbai.
The Coast Guard claims a boom is usually used as a first option to control an oil spill. Once the oil is cornered, oil spill dispersants are sprayed. But in Saturday’s collision, no boom was used and oil dispersants were directly sprayed.
The port authorities said until all the floating containers that fell off the MSC Chitra are salvaged, it would be unsafe to restart operations at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.
On Monday morning, the Yellow Gate police questioned the captains of both ships — MSC Chitra and MV Khalijia-III.
The authorities will also be asking the ships’ owners to compensate fishermen for loss of livelihood.