Oil spill at Tamil Nadu's Kamarajar port

CHENNAI: More than two tonnes of oil spilled at the Kamarajar Port in Tamil Nadu after a flexible hose snapped while discharging oil fuel at Marine Liquid Terminal on Sunday morning.  The oil spilled at the berth side after the vessel MT Coral Stars hose snapped and the oil spilled into seawater at 4.30am, Kamarajar Port chairman P Raveendran told Express.

The Indian Coast Guard said that they are ascertaining how much oil leaked. "Our interceptor boats are there. We have also asked our vessel in Vizag to reach the spot immediately,” a Coast Guard official said.

The Port chairman said that preliminary estimate is that the oil spilled in the sea could be around two tonnes. “The emergency response mechanism was immediately activated and all agencies including coastguard swung into action,” he said.

The chairman said that the spillage is confined to the breakwaters as fence boom was immediately deployed around the vessel. “Ariel survey was also done by the coast guard with the sea side reconnaissance by the interceptor boat. The recovery of spilled oil immediately commenced with the help of skimmers and absorbent pads. The recovery process will be completed by tomorrow,” he said. On January 28, 2017, a collision of vessels between MT Dawn Kanchipuram and BW Maple had led to an oil leak at Chennai and Ennore’s coast.