Cypriot shipping authorities are to draw up contingency plans Tuesday on how to discharge 23,000 tones of unleaded petrol from a stricken, Cyprus-flagged tanker now languishing between Malta and Tunisia, officials said.
"The only realistic option is to remove the petrol from the tanker, but there's no chance it will be allowed to enter a Cypriot port for this to happen," a Department of Merchant Shipping (DMS) official told AFP.
The Castor, developed a 20 meter-long crack on its deck off Morocco's northern coast on New Year's eve as it headed from the Ukraine to Lagos, Nigeria.
The official said a DMS committee will decide the criteria under which the ship would be allowed to enter Cyprus territorial waters for the operation to empty the petrol, but the final decision will be left to the Cabinet on Wednesday.
He said the DMS last month ruled out the idea that the ship - abandoned by its crew and tied to tugboats until it is given safe haven - would be either sunk or have its cargo set alight due to environmental concerns.
"We're looking to discharge the cargo but if the worse comes to worse, the petrol will be dumped on the surface of the sea where it would evaporate within a couple of days," said the official.
The committee will decide where the ship will anchor within the island's territorial waters that will provide optimal conditions for the operation.
The official said some 6,500 tones of petrol have already been removed from the ship and the damaged cargo hold has been filled with sea water and inert gas to reduce the risk of fire.
But bad weather conditions have so hampered efforts to remove the rest of the flammable cargo. The vessel has already been turned away from Spain, Gibraltar and Morocco, where authorities feared that a massive explosion might occur during the operation.—AFP.
©--Agence France Presse 2001.
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
