CHENNAI: As fear of tonnes of crude oil spilling out of MT New Diamond tanker, that caught
fire off the coast of Sri Lanka on Thursday morning, looms, the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) has said that any such spill will not pose an immediate threat to the Indian coast.
The Kerala government had expressed fear whether oil or its residue would reach its coast and sought the expert opinion of INCOIS after which a hypothetical oil drift simulation was carried out using the INCOIS oil spill model based on information obtained from the Duty Meteorologist, National Meteorological Center, Department of Meteorology in Colombo.
The model was run from the vessel location, which is some 30 nautical miles off the Sri Lanka coast. As per the simulation, the oil drift pattern from the vessel is towards the south and will be moving offshore till Friday midnight. On Saturday, the spill will travel in the southeast direction and on Sunday, the pollutants will drift towards the northeast and move offshore.
"The spill will not reach the Indian coast or the Sri Lanka coast. It is drifting offshore into international waters. As per the simulations and considering the worst case scenario of spillage (70,000 MT of crude oil and 1700 MT of diesel oil), the Sri Lankan coast and Indian coast are not under threat of being affected by oil pollutants till September 6 midnight. However, the oil drift pattern will be monitored and updated at periodic intervals," said TM Balakrishnan Nair, Head, Ocean Science and Information Services Group (ISG) of INCOIS to The New Indian Express.
He said if the oceanic conditions change drastically and wind starts blowing towards the coast, then things may change. INCOIS is in constant touch with the ground teams including the Sri Lankan navy and Indian coast guard.
The INCOIS oil spill trajectory prediction system is based on inputs like details of the oil spill, location, date and time of the spill, quantity and type of oil spilled. The system is linked to the Ocean State Forecast System that provides parameters like wind direction, speed and currents. The model will generate the trajectory and zones that are likely to be affected.
MT New Diamond is a very large crude carrier with 2.7 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of crude oil and 1,700 MT of diesel oil on board. The vessel was flagged in Panama and was traveling from Kuwait to the Indian port of Paradip when an explosion occurred and a fire broke out in the engine room of the vessel on Thursday. The vessel is chartered by the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).