The Bahamas, where the oil tanker Prestige was registered, will focus on hull repairs carried out in China in its investigation into the sinking of the ship last week, Lloyds shipping service reported on Wednesday.
Fuel oil that leaked from the Prestige before it sank in the Atlantic last week fouled hundreds of miles of coastline in northwest Spain, ravaging the local fishing- and tourism-based economy and rousing environmentalists’ fury.
The hull of the 26-year-old tanker, which was carrying 77,000 tonnes of fuel oil to Asia from the Baltic, cracked in a storm in the Bay of Biscay, and the ship broke up and sank on November 19 while being towed further out to sea.
The Bahamas Maritime Authority said repairs carried out in China in May 2001 will be of “particular interest” in its investigation, Lloyds reported.
“The effects of new steelwork being connected to the old structure will be assessed and a possible subject for an in-depth investigation into the stresses introduced into the hull by the repairs and the question of metal fatigue induced by the 26 years of the vessel’s operations,” Lloyds quoted the Authority as saying.
The Authority said the Prestige was in “sound condition” and rejected suggestions that the lack of port inspections, particularly in Europe, was significant, Lloyds said.
France and Spain said on Tuesday they would crack down on suspect tankers sailing up to 320 km (200 miles) off their coasts, inspecting them and if necessary expelling them from their 200-mile exclusive economic zones.
Single-hulled vessels like the Prestige, which was 26 years old, are due to be phased out by 2015, but France and Spain — both victims of recent oil tanker disasters — agreed they could not wait that long.
“We have decided that as of tomorrow, ships built more than 15 years ago that have a single hull and transport fuel oil or tar and…are a danger to our coasts must be exhaustively checked, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said after summit talks in Malaga with French President Jacques Chirac.
Aznar said he and Chirac hoped other EU members would join their initiative at the Copenhagen summit next month.
The Prestige was Liberian-owned, registered in the Bahamas, operated by a Greek company and was chartered by a Swiss-based Russian oil trader at the time it sank.
Spanish authorities estimate some 11,000 tonnes of fuel oil had leaked out of the ship’s tanks by the time it broke up and sank.
Lloyds, Reuters
