Indian Ocean: Tug boats and ships battle the fire on MT New Diamond, off the eastern coast of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean. The crude carrier chartered by Indian Oil Corp (IOC), caught fire while on its way to port of Paradip in India last week
The Indian Coast Guard has said oil sheen has been observed astern/backside of the very large crude carrier (VLCC) New Diamond that has been on fire for the past six days. The Coast Guard said oil spill dispersants were sprayed by its Dornier aircraft to neutralise. The ship is laden with about 300,000 ton of Kuwaiti crude oil for Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) was bound to India's Paradip Port in Odisha where the former has a large refinery. On Tuesday, the Coast Guard said the vessel is trimmed by aft (backside of the ship dipped down into the water) by about three feet or by about one metre.
The Indian coastal security agency also said owing to the continued fire the accommodation superstructure has weakened while no significant list of the vessel was observed.
It is not known what other damage the vessel has suffered owing to continued fire for six days.
The 20-year-old VLCC, sailing under the Panama flag, reported fire on-Board on September 3 when it was about 37 nautical miles off the coast in Sri Lankan Exclusive Economic Zone.
Later the burning tanker was towed away to prevent drifting to shallow waters.
The New Diamond oil tanker departed from Mina Al Ahmadi, Kuwait on August 23 and was headed to India's Paradip port. The oil tanker was expected to reach Paradip in Odisha on September 5.
According to the Coast Guard, the vessel reported a major explosion in its engine room while it was on its way to Pradip.
The first information about the vessel fire was received at the Coast Guard Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Mumbai.
A Coast Guard official had earlier said that the ship's fuel is on fire.
The ship apparently had about 1,700 tonnes of fuel when it caught fire.
(With agency inputs)
