Colombo: A senior Sri Lankan navy official on Friday said there is no real danger of an oil spill from the stricken supertanker MT New Diamond, which caught fire in the seas off the island nation on Thursday.
Director-General of Operations Rear-Admiral Y N Jayarathna told reporters it is the navy’s view that there is no real danger of a spill because the fire on the ship has been contained in the rear section of the vessel.
The 299,986 dead weight tonne (dwt) very large crude carrier (VLCC) tanker has a total capacity 340,104 cubic meters, or about 300,000 tonnes.
The fully-laden vessel was carrying about 2 million barrels (around 270,000 tonnes) of Kuwait oil valued at roughly $90 million to the Paradip refinery on India's east coast when fire broke out in the engine on Sept 3.
The 333-meter long double-hulled supertanker was built in 2000 by Mitsui Ichihara Engineering & Shipbuilding in Japan.
The 20-year-old New Diamond was previously sold at $26.5 million in January 2013, and the current market value is $21.28 million, according to VesselsValue, a company that tracks ships and vessel transactions.
The Panamanian-flagged tanker (IMO number 9191424) is owned by Liberia-based Porto Emporios Shipping Inc since 2013.
The vessel's commercial and safety manager is Greece-based New Shipping Ltd, which has a fleet of 32 oil tankers and bulk carriers under its care, according to data from Equasis.org, a shipping transparency website.
In 1992, the United Nations shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), mandated that all tankers of 5,000 dwt and more be fitted with double hulls to reduce the likelihood of leaks following the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster in Alaska in 1989.
