No oil spillage from 3000-tonne unmanned tanker off Goan coast carrying naphtha, says state govt; expert team constituted ‘to plan remedial action’

Panaji: A naphtha-carrying ship which has run aground in the sea off the Goa coast has not moved further and aerial survey showed there is no oil spillage from the vessel, the state government said on Saturday. 3000-tonne unmanned oil tanker NU SHI Nalini, which was anchored off Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) harbour, drifted towards Raj Bhavan at Dona Paula beach on Thursday. A statement by the chief minister’s office (CMO) said the ship has about 2,000 tonnes of naphtha, 50 tonnes of heavy oil and 19 tonnes of diesel on board. An expert team of captain KP Jayakumar, Nautical Advisor, Government of India; captain Mohit Behl, Nautical Surveyor, Directorate General of Shipping and Bodh Raj, Engineer and Ship Surveyor, Mercantile Marine Department, Mumbai, along with MPT officials were assessing the situation “to plan remedial actions”, it said. Various agencies including the MPT signal station are monitoring the ship round-the-clock, the CMO said. “Port assessment and Coast Guard’s aerial inspection found no oil spillage. The Coast Guard has also stationed one oil spill response vessel in the vicinity of the grounded vessel,” it said. The ship had not moved away from the spot where it ran aground, it added. “We are talking to experts from Mumbai and Pune since naphtha is highly inflammable. If the sea gets calm, then the oil and diesel will be pumped out from the vessel and transferred into smaller boats,” state Ports Minister Michael Lobo had said earlier in the day. He also blamed the MPT for the incident. The tanker owner had earlier assured the government that another vessel would be brought in by Sunday to offload naphtha from the stranded tanker.