Marine team contains oil spill at Fujairah port

An oil spill response team from the Fujairah Marine Services and Trading Company yesterday succeeded in controlling a spill in which more than 150 tonnes of fuel oil poured into the sea.

The accident took place on Saturday morning while a ship was being refuelled by the Vopak Enoc Fujairah Ltd.

Michael Kritikakis, Operations Manager of the Fujairah Marine Services and Trading Company, told Gulf News that his oil spill salvage team responded immediately to the serious situation.

"We were told of the spill at Vopak Enoc and our team rushed to the spot where the oil was leaking from a huge supply hose at the company's fuel supply terminal," said Kritikakis.

He pointed out that his team used its oil spill containment equipment and vacuum trucks to prevent the oil from spreading.

They worked feverishly to collect the spilled oil after surrounding it with rubber tools and took great efforts to clean the the polluted area.

Kirk Davis, a member of the spill salvage team, said the group was on the verge of controlling the spill and prevent it from spreading. "More than 150 tonnes of heavy fuel oil No. 6 were spilled into the sea.

"We have been working on collecting it since Saturday and we have succeeded so far in collecting more than 96 per cent of it," said Davis.

Official sources from the Fujairah Port authority said no one should panic about the spill and claimed that these spills can occur anytime during the fuelling of ships.

He assured that the oil spill salvage team of the Fujairah Marine Services and Trading Company, along with another team from the port, have already controlled the spill.
The marine ecosystem in the Gulf was hit hard during the 1991 Gulf War.

Now experts are concerned about the damage in the aftermath of the war in Iraq. Several oil tankers were stranded in the north of the Gulf during the war, raising the risk of accidental spillage.