No pollution threat from oil spill: Coast Guard

There is no pollution threat from the small quantity of oil leaked from a Japanese tanker that collided with a cargo vessel near Indira Point in the Andaman Islands, a top Coast Guard official said on Wednesday.

The tanker and the Singapore-registered merchant vessel had collided on August 14 at a spot 290 miles west-southwest of Indira Point, the furthest point in Indian territory.

A Dornier aircraft of the Coast Guard, which flew over the area on Wednesday morning, found a 'thin oil sheen only 300 metres wide,' Coast Guard Inspector General S P Sharma told PTI.

"There is no pollution threat because the rough seas at this time of the year are disintegrating and dispersing the slick, which though 300 metre wide extends 12 miles because of ocean currents," Sharma said.

"In the last 24 hours, it has moved only 12 miles and would take 10 days to reach the shoreline 300

nautical miles away, but it would disperse by then," he said, ruling out the use of chemical dispersants.

Since the area of the collision feel within a major shipping lane, traffic had been asked to report on the status of the slick, Sharma said.

The tanker Bright Artemis collided with the cargo vessel Amar while trying to rescue the latter's 24-member crew when it caught fire, he said. As a result of the collision, 450 tons of oil leaked from the tanker.

The tanker, which was carrying 250,000 tons of crude oil from Saudi Arabia and Oman, continued on its voyage to Japan after the accident.

Twenty-three members of Amar's crew were rescued by another passing ship, the Maersk Dampier. One crew member was missing, Coast Guard officials said.