After nearly a week of burning at open sea, a Greek-owned VLCC released a quantity of fuel into the Indian Ocean, Sri Lankan authorities said on Tuesday.
“A narrow diesel oil patch extending to one kilometer away from the ship has been observed,” the Sri Lanka Navy said in its most recent update.
The fire on the 300,000-dwt New Diamond (built 2000) has been raging since 3 September after a boiler exploded in the ship's main engine room leaving one Filipino seaman dead.
The navy, however, played down the spill, saying the oil likely came from the New Diamond's engine and not from the 270,000 tons of crude it is carrying.
“The crude oil storage of the distressed ship is still safe from the fire and there is no danger of the ship leaking oil into the sea at the moment,” it said in its statement on 8 September.
According to the official statement, the observed diesel oil strip probably was in ruptured tanks close to the engine room that mixed with flooded sea water and then oozed out as the ship was changing position in the waves.
“Over the past few days, the firefighting teams continued to surge sheer volume of sea water to extinguish fire onboard. As a result, the engine room of the ship was flooded with sea water, making it lying in a position called ‘trim by aft'”, the statement explained.
A Dornier aircraft by the Indian coastguard dropped diesel dispersant in the area to minimise the spill's impact on the ocean.
Indian forces are participating in the multinational operation to save the ship and prevent a major environmental disaster.
Blaze under control
Meanwhile, efforts to completely extinguish the fire on board continue.
Sri Lankan authorities reported on 5 September they had the flames under control. A day later, they announced they managed to completely douse the flames. By 7 September, however, the fire reignited, fanned by strong winds blowing around 30 nautical miles (55 km) from Sri Lanka’s coast.
“There are no flames or smoke to be noticed as of now and the distressed ship is being towed further away towards safe waters by a tug,” the Sri Lanka Navy said in its latest statement on Wednesday.
A multinational flotilla of up to 17 ships and aircraft remain in the area, assisted by overseas salvage operation and disaster management professionals from the UK and the Netherlands.
The ship’s owners, Athens-based New Shipping, have appointed Smit Singapore as salvage experts.
The New Diamond was fixed by Indian Oil Corp to carry a crude cargo from Kuwait to Paradip in eastern India.
(This article was updated since its original publication with the latest statement issued by the Sri Lanka Navy on 9 September)
