A Singapore-registered tanker laden with crude oil was in trouble on Friday between Mozambique and Madagascar, say shipping officials.
The Napa — at 250 metres, the length of two-and-a-half soccer fields — had earlier put in to the South African port of Durban to take on supplies.
Captain Robert Zanders, principal officer of the South African Maritime Authority in Durban, said a leak had been detected there and some of the crude pumped out to relieve the pressure.
The Napa, which was bound from the Gulf to the United States, can carry 250 000 tons of crude, but authorities did not specify how full it was.
It left Durban on Wednesday, and on Friday was 200 nautical miles off Mozambique, near the tiny French island of Europa, the Mozambican national maritime authority Safmar reported.
Zanders said the captain was planning a ship-to-ship transfer of oil in the Mozambique Channel in the vicinity of Europa island. – Sapa-AFP