/ 10 December 2009

Somali-held tanker may cause oil spill, says UN agency

A Greek-flagged oil tanker seized by Somali pirates last month could create an ''environmental catastrophe'', the UN's shipping agency said on Thursday.

A Greek-flagged oil tanker seized by Somali pirates last month could create an ”environmental catastrophe” if it is damaged by worsening weather off Somalia, the United Nation’s shipping agency said on Thursday.

The Maran Centaurus was sailing from Kuwait to the Gulf of Mexico with a crew of 28 and cargo of two million barrels of crude oil, when it was seized by armed assailants near the Seychelles on November 29 and taken to Somalia.

”Adverse weather conditions and other contributing factors may bring about an accident to the supertanker … possibly resulting in an environmental catastrophe off the coast of Somalia,” the International Maritime Organization (IMO) said in a statement.

The UN’s IMO, tasked with the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine pollution by vessels, said the hijacked ship was taken to an area off the port of Hobyo in Somalia.

”Weather conditions are said to be changing for the worse in the area which, coupled with reported unsafe anchorage conditions, has led to concerns that the vessel might be damaged by grounding, leading to its cargo being spilled and resulting in serious ecological damage,” the IMO said.

Pirates from Somalia have made tens of millions of dollars in ransoms, seizing commercial shipping in the Indian Ocean and strategic Gulf of Aden, which links Europe to Asia.

A multinational naval deployment in the area seems only to have driven them to hunt further from shore.

The IMO said its secretary-general Efthimios Mitropoulos was worried about the potential for ecological disaster, in an area of the world ”that presently lacked the infrastructure, equipment, resources and expertise to cope with it”.

It said Mitropoulos had expressed concerns in a letter to Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke that any accident could have repercussions for nearby fishing grounds and a ”consequent negative economic impact on the livelihood of the population in the area”. — Reuters