Spill Feared from Grounded Oil Tanker Off Pakistan
Date: 14-Aug-03
Country: PAKISTAN
The Greek ship Tasman Spirit, carrying 67,500 tons of oil, was grounded near the port on July 27 and three attempts to tow it away have failed.
"There has been a crack in the grounded ship at the lower end and there are fears that within the next 12 hours the ship can break into two," Ahmad Hayat, chairman of the Karachi Port Trust, told a news conference.
"If the ship breaks there are fears that three of its tanks will break," he said, adding that one tank was full of water while the other two contained between 1,000 to 5,000 tons of crude oil.
He said that in case of spillage, oil would quickly travel to the Clifton and Defense beaches of Karachi and booms had been put in place to protect the port.
Witnesses said that the stern of the tanker was completely submerged.
Hayat said the ship started cracking after low tides caused buckling yesterday.
He said an estimated 19,000 tons of crude had been transferred from the ship since a salvage operation began on Saturday.