PAKISTAN: Pakistani port officials warned yesterday that they faced a major oil spill along the country's southern coastline after a tanker that ran aground in heavy storms began to crack open.
A growing slick of oil washed ashore along the main beaches outside Karachi, bringing toxic fumes and hundreds of dead fish, sea birds and turtles.
More than 1,000 policemen, equipped with masks, were deployed to close the seafront. Around 15km of beach, which every evening is normally filled with families from Karachi, have been closed.
The single-hull tanker Tasman Spirit ran aground in heavy monsoon storms more than two weeks ago. Salvage experts managed to retrieve some of the 67,500 tonnes of Iranian crude oil it was carrying but more than 40,000 tonnes remain on board, port officials said.
If the rest seeped into the sea, it would become one of the world's worst oil spills.
When the Exxon Valdez ran aground off Alaska in 1989, it spilt 38,800 tonnes, equivalent to 125 Olympic-size swimming pools, and created more damage to the environment than any oil spill in history.
Attempts to unload more oil from the Tasman Spirit, which is stuck around 800 metres outside the main harbour, were abandoned on Wednesday after a crack developed in the hull. Operators feared the crack could trigger a fire or explosion and the crew were evacuated.
"The crack has now increased," Brig Iftikhar Arshad, the general manager at the Karachi Port Trust, said yesterday.
"There are a lot of stresses and strains on the structure. We are keeping our fingers crossed but it may break up at any moment."
He said three tanks in the ship were particularly vulnerable.
Containment booms have been prepared for a spill and chemical dispersants have been brought to the site. A C-130 transport plane carrying extra dispersants and other equipment was flown in from Singapore.
"We are preparing ourselves for the worst-case scenario," Brig Arshad said. He insisted only a "limited" amount of oil had so far been spilt in the operations to reduce the ship's load.
But residents in Karachi have reported seeing oil gush from the side of the tanker and form a large slick around the ship.