Oil spill from sunken ship-2 vessels keeping vigil

Mr K. Raghuramaiah, Chairman of Paradip Port Trust (PPT), on Tuesday
refuted the report that the sunken ship, "Black Rose", was spilling
huge quantities of furnace oil posing threat to the marine life in the
Bay of Bengal in and around Paradip. Large-scale spillage from the
ship was not possible for two reasons, Mr Raghuramaiah told Business
Line over phone from Paradip. First, the bulk of the furnace oil of
the sunken ship, about 900 tonnes, was contained in three sealed
chambers ("fully secure double bottom tanks") which, the inspection
revealed, were intact and, therefore, with little chance of oil
leaking from there.
Next, the furnace oil stored in the chambers was in semi-solid
condition and would become liquid only after heating and, therefore,
the oozing of semi-solid oil from the sealed chambers was remote.The
PPT Chairman, however, did not rule out some spillage of furnace oil
and lube oil from the engine room in "negligible" quantity, but, as of
now, there was no sign of that oil surfacing and thus causing
problem."We have posted two vessels, one PPT's own and the other
belonging to the Coast Guard, in the area to keep 24-hour vigil on the
probable oil spill," he said pointing out that the vessels were
carrying necessary equipment, including "boomers" to tackle spill, if
any.
"If there was some spillage, the port authorities could not help it,"
he said, adding, "after all, it was an accident over which we had no
control."Meanwhile, PPT, the Chairman indicated, was contemplating
legal action against the owner of the vessel. There was no insurance
cover for the ship which, though flying Mongolian flag, belonged to
the Singapore-based Black Rose Maritime Ltd. However, the owner was
yet to be traced. "Despite our best effort, we've not yet been able to
locate him," he said. Locating the owner is important due to several
reasons, the most important being to force him to bear the cost of
removing the oil stored in the ship's tanks and the cost of salvaging
the ship wreck.
Ministry help sought ::: "After all, the port authorities cannot bear
these costs running into crores of rupees," he said indicating that
the Shipping Ministry's help in this regard had been sought. "However,
our first priority is to monitor and check oil spill, if any," he
said, adding, "salvage of the wreck can wait, more so when the wreck
is not obstructing the navigable channel."

by..Santanu Sanyal from the apges of THE HINDU BUSINESSLINE NEWSPAPER.