Diesel fuel has leaked from stricken Indian Oil Corp tanker

The Sri Lankan Navy eported a ‘diesel patch’ behind crude oil tanker MT New Diamond, which recently caught fire and drifted off Sri Lanka’s south eastern coast, the Indian daily The Hindu reports.

The supertanker has been carrying crude for Indian Oil Corp when it caught fire. Greeks and Filipinos makes up its crew.

“We believe it is from the ruptured diesel tank or the residual water in the engine room that initially exploded,” navy spokesman Captain Indika de Silva said, ruling out an oil spill.

Form the time the large vessel carrying 2,70,000 tons of crude oil — from Kuwait to Odisha — went up in flames on Thursday, the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard personnel, along with the Sri Lankan Navy, have been fire-fighting to douse the flames. “The flames are under control,” Captain de Silva told The Hindu.

India on Tuesday sent fresh supplies of chemicals to help battle a new blaze spotted on Monday night, a press statement from the Indian Coast Guard said.

According to the Sri Lankan Navy, the fire-fighting teams have, over the past few days, continued to spray a large volume of sea water to extinguish the fire onboard.

As a result, the engine room of the ship was flooded with sea water, making it lying in a position called ‘trim by aft’.

“In this backdrop, it is believed that the diesel that had been stored in ruptured tanks close to the engine room had been mixed with flooded water and oozed out due to the ship’s changing position. However, the crude oil storage of the distressed ship is still safe from the fire and there is no danger of the ship leaking oil into the sea at the moment,” the Sri Lankan Navy said in a statement.