Coast Guard Locating Oil Spill In Indian Ocean

A Coast Guard aircraft is attempting to locate the spot where a tanker and a cargo vessel had a "minor collision" in the Indian Ocean and assess the oil spill it had caused. Coast Guard sources have said that the collision took place 290 nautical miles southwest of Great Nicobar Island on Monday and the spill was a "nominal" 400 tonnes. Earlier reports quoting the spokesperson of Mitsui OSK line, owner of the tanker Bright Artemis, said that some 4,500 tonnes of crude oil was believed to have spilled from it into the Indian Ocean when it tried to rescue the crew of the Singaporean cargo vessel Amar. Coast Guard sources said that Amar was sailing from Kandla port to China with a crew of 24 when it caught fire on Monday.Bright ArtemisWhile 23 of them were helped to safety by another ship Maersk Dampier passing by, one person fell overboard and is yet to be rescued. The tanker, which was carrying 250,000 tonnes of crude oil from Saudi Arabia and Oman, had resumed sailing to Japan after the collision and there was no fear of it sinking or of further spillage, the spokesperson had said. Singaporean and Indian authorities were informed of the accident, he added.