Philippine coast guard says oil inside sunken tanker has started to leak into Manila Bay

The Philippine Coast Guardon Saturday (July 27) said that around1.4 million litres of industrial fuel oil inside a sunken tankerhave started to leak into Manila Bay.The MT Terra Nova sank due to bad weather off Manila early Thursday, killing one crew member and leaving the country to potentially deal with its worst oil spill.

The coast guard is now rushing to avoid anenvironmental catastrophe. A report by the news agency AFP said thatthe oil slick has more than tripled in size and is now estimated to stretch 12-14 kilometres across the bay.

'Leakage not alarming yet'

The spokesperson for the Philippine Coast Guard,Rear Admiral Armando Balilo said on Saturday that diversinspected the hull of the vessel and saw a minimal leak from the valves, adding that the leakage isnot alarming yet.

"It's just a small volume flowing out. The tanks are intact," Balilo said. He hoped that by Sunday (Jul 28), "we will be able to start syphoning the oil from the motor tanker."

The coast guard spokesperson also said that the ship that will carry the recovered oil is on its way to the area.

Oil containment booms have been deployed for what Balilo earlier described as "the worst case scenario" of the cargo leaking out.

Thousands of fishermen and tourism operators work in the Manila Bay. The spokesperson said that the coast guardalso called for a suspension of fishing in the bay to prevent people from eating contaminated fish.

A warning by coast guard

The coast guard has warned that if the entire cargo leaked it would lead to an"environmental catastrophe." They had previously said thatthe oil leaking from thetanker appeared to be the diesel fuel used to power the vessel.

However, it now thinksthe slick is a mixture of diesel and industrial fuel oil.The vessel sank nearly seven kilometres from its origin in the port of Limay west of Manila.

Sixteen of the 17 crew members were rescued from thetanker. The coast guard has estimated that the extraction of oil from the vesselwould take at least a week.

(With inputs from agencies)