The Department of the Marine and Natural Resources will decide today whether to take some 55,000 tonnes of gas-oil aboard a Panamanian-registered tanker detained off the Donegal coast.
The Maritime Safety Directorate (MSD) detained the Princess Eva, which lost two crewmen in a deck accident off the Mayo coast earlier this week.
The 65,000-tonne tanker has been held under EU Port State control provisions following an inspection yesterday by surveyors from the MSD.
Several defects, including cracks in the deck, were discovered during the inspection which took place in McSwyne's Bay off the Donegal coast. The ship is a single-hull tanker, and such vessels are due to be outlawed by the EU in 2015 - if not sooner - under plans from the EU Transport Commissioner.
There is no immediate pollution risk from the ship, the Department said last night. However, a decision will be taken today in consultation with the Irish Coast Guard on possible pumping off the gas-oil.The tanker is in sheltered waters.
As a precautionary measure, the Irish Coast Guard mobilised personnel and specialised pollution response equipment. The ship came into McSwyne's Bay on Wednesday to transfer the bodies of two crewmen who died in Tuesday's deck accident ashore.
The two men, named as Pedro Sanchez and Andres Manrique, were senior ships' officers, both from Argentina. A third man, Mr Carlos Hernanvex Bena, from Uruguay, is in a critical condition in University College Hospital, Galway.