Oil spill occurs 450 km off Chennai coast, Indian Coast Guard monitoring situation

The vessel is stable and is continuing its voyage and is expected to reach its destination by late hours of Friday (June 18).

Chennai: A 10 kiloliter mid-sea oil spill was reported from a Portuguese flagged container ship MV Devon, 450 km off Chennai coast. It occurred while the vessel was transiting the region, during its voyage from Colombo, Sri Lanka to Haldia, West Bengal.

The vessel is stable and is continuing its voyage and is expected to reach its destination by the late hours of Friday (June 18).

The Indian Coast Guard said it received the information on the oil spill from Maritime Rescue and Coordination Center (MRCC) Colombo in the late hours of Wednesday. It said that the MV Devon vessel developed an underwater crack in the left side fuel tank containing about 120 KL of Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (VLSFO).

As a result of this crack 10 KL of oil spilled into the sea, but the crew had taken preventive action by transferring the remaining oil into another tank, ICG said.

ICG said it is in continuous contact with MV Devon and its pollution response team at Chennai has been alerted and kept on standby. In addition, ICG ships and aircraft deployed at sea are also put on alert in pollution response configuration.