Indian authorities and coast guard were mobilized on Monday to contain an oil spill after a cargo ship sank off India’s West coast this weekend, leaking marine fuel and fuel from containers.
Liberia-flagged container vessel MSC ELSA 3 sent a distress signal to authorities on Saturday, May 24, the Indian Coast Guard said. The vessel departed from the port of Vizhinjam Port on May 23, bound for Kochi with ETA on May 24. However, following the distress signal, the vessel capsized and sank in the early hours of May 25, reportedly due to flooding in one of the holds, the coast guard said on Sunday.
All 24 crew were rescued safely.
The vessel was carrying 640 containers, including 13 containing hazardous cargo and 12 with calcium carbide. Additionally, the ship had 84.44 metric tons of diesel and 367.1 metric tons of furnace oil in its tanks.
The Indian Coast Guard has activated a comprehensive Pollution Response preparedness and is working in close coordination with the administration of the Indian state of Kerala to address all possible scenarios. Coast Guard aircraft equipped with advanced oil spill mapping technology are conducting aerial assessment of the affected area.
On Sunday, the state government of Kerala issued an alert to all Kerala coastal areas to warn of an oil spill.
“Besides the oil in the fallen containers, marine fuel used in the ship has also leaked,” the Chief Minister’s Office said in a statement carried by The Indian Express.
“As the oil slick can reach anywhere along the Kerala coast, an alert has been sounded across the coastal belt. The containers are drifting in the sea at a speed of 3 km per hour,” the Kerala state authorities added.
The state government has banned fishing in an area of 20 nautical miles away from the ship that sunk.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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