• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Tanker May Spill Tons of Oil Off Pakistan

Posted on: Thursday, 14 August 2003, 06:00 CDT

A Greek-registered oil tanker that ran aground off Karachi's coast has developed cracks in its hull and is threatening to spill tons of oil in rich fishing waters, port officials said.

A low tide Wednesday morning put extra stress on the MT Tasman Spirit - which is already leaking oil - and caused the ship to buckle, said Ahmed Hayat, chairman of the Karachi Port Trust, which manages the Pakistani city's port.

"The ship has cracked and can break apart within 12 hours," Hayat said Wednesday.

The tanker ran aground July 27 in monsoon rains and high tides, and crews have been racing to siphon off oil to make the vessel lighter so it can be pulled to deeper waters.

The ship was carrying 62,000 tons of crude oil for state-run Pakistan Refinery Ltd., and about 20,000 tons have already been siphoned off into a second tanker, officials said. The ship was chartered by Pakistan National Shipping Corp.

Brig. Iftikhar Arshad, general manager at Karachi Port Trust, said the ship had about 12 tanks and four have been emptied. Only three of the remaining tanks were "vulnerable," and each one contains about 5,000 tons of oil, he said.

An unknown amount of oil has already leaked out of the ship, and Karachi's government closed all public beaches Wednesday afternoon, city official Hanif Akbar said. Children were finding dead fish and sea turtles covered in oil.

"If the oil spill is on a big scale, it will affect all marine life," said Ahmed Saeed, head of environment assessment services at IUCN, the World Conservation Union.

He added that if the spill makes its way to Karachi's mangrove forests - rich breeding grounds for local fisheries - it would seriously threaten fish eggs and other marine life like sea turtles, shrimp, crabs and even dolphins.

But Hayat, chairman of the port trust, played down the threat of the spill reaching the mangroves.

"The mangrove forest is in no danger from the spill because the oil would have to pass through the port to get to the forest, and we are controlling the spill at the port," Hayat said.

Hayat explained that the port authority has cordoned the ship off with "booms," large air-filled balloon-like objects made of rubber that stop the spill from spreading and suck in the oil which is disposed of later.

Work on the oil transfer got off to a slow start when the ship's pumps got stuck and stopped working. The problem was fixed and oil from the tanker was being moved to another tanker that arrived from the United Arab Emirates.

The ship had been chartered by Pakistan National Shipping Corp., port officials said.

Meanwhile traffic in Karachi port, Pakistan's main shipping center, has not stopped. Port officials said there was no need to as the ship has drifted away from the channel and officials have cordoned off a large area around it.

More News in this Category