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Egypt Tackles Dispersing Mediterranean Slick |
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| EGYPT: February 8, 2005 | ||
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CAIRO - Egyptian authorities began cleaning up what remains of a 1,500-tonne oil slick caused by a tanker collision in the Mediterranean on Monday, an Environment Ministry spokesman said.
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The tankers, the Marshall Islands-registered Genmar Kestrel and the Singapore-flagged Trijata, collided on Saturday about 14 nautical miles from Egypt's oil and gas hub Damietta, which lies to the west of Port Said. A ship equipped with suction hoses was being used to remove the remaining oil from the sea surface after heavy winds broke up the majority of the slick, the spokesman said. Officials had feared the wind could drive the slick towards Port Said at the entrance to the Suez canal but an Environment Ministry statement on Monday said the slick was now a safe distance away, some 40 nautical miles offshore. The clean-up operation should end later on Monday because the remaining slick was relatively small, the spokesman added. The tankers have remained close to the collision site pending investigations, Damietta port officials said. The collision made a one-metre by 35-cm (three-feet by one-foot) hole in the Genmar Kestrel below the waterline causing the oil to spill, a shipping source said.
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REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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