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Oil Tankers Collide, Wind Blows Slick Towards Port Said Coast |
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| EGYPT: February 7, 2005 | ||
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CAIRO - A stiff breeze is blowing a 1,500-tonne oil slick towards Egypt's Mediterranean coast near the city of Port Said after two oil tankers collided on Saturday, the state news agency MENA said on Sunday.
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Egyptian officials went out to sea to inspect the slick, and a port official said the authorities would deal with the slick if it approached the harbour, the agency reported, adding that the northwesterly wind was blowing at 13 knots. The tankers, the Marshall Islands-registered Genmar Kestrel and the Singapore-flagged Trijata, collided about 14 miles (23 km) from Damietta, which lies to the west of Port Said. "According to this data, the slick will probably move towards the Mediterranean coast near Port Said," MENA quoted port official Rear Admiral Hisham el-Sarsawi as saying. The collision made a 1 metre long by 35 cm wide (3 feet by 1 foot) hole in the Genmar Kestrel below the waterline, causing the oil to spill, a shipping source said. The Egyptian authorities have demanded that the owners of the tankers give a written commitment to cover the cost of any damage to the environment, a government spokesman said. In December, the Suez Canal Authority contained a slick in the strategic waterway caused by a leak from a damaged Kuwaiti oil tanker.
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REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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