Symbolic imageSalvage team boards grounded tanker as Oman oil spill widens
Specialists have boarded the sanctioned tanker Caroline Bezengi, aground in a marine reserve off Oman since late June. Its crude has now reached the mainland.
Ambrey, the British maritime security firm, said on Thursday, 13 August, that specialists had boarded the Caroline Bezengi with support from the Royal Air Force of Oman to begin stabilising the ship, with salvage vessels and more than 100 tonnes of equipment on the way. The Khareef monsoon is hampering the work. The tanker has settled deeper since grounding, raising fears the hull could break up and release more of its estimated 800,000 barrels of Russian crude.
Oil on the mainland
Oman's Environment Authority said on Wednesday that oil had reached the country's mainland. The slick covers more than 2,000 square kilometres and threatens about 40km of coastline near Ras Madrakah, a spill specialist who reviewed satellite imagery told Reuters.
No insurer, no fund
The IOPC Funds told Reuters it would not cover clean-up costs because the case is being treated as an act of war, and the tanker has no recognised Western insurer.
Unexplained blast off Yemen
The sanctioned tanker was bound from Russia to India when it first reported trouble off Yemen on 8 June; maritime sources said a blast appeared to have occurred on board. No party has claimed an attack.
Other opinions
Breitbart names Iran-backed Houthi fighters, which it calls terrorists, as the suspects for the June blast, while Reuters, carried by Daily Sabah, notes only that no one has claimed it.