Tonnes of crude oil spilling out of the MT New Diamond tanker that caught fire off the coast of Sri Lanka on Thursday evening pose no threat to the Indian coast as of now, said the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS).
As per the information obtained from the Duty Meteorologist, National Meteorological Center, Department of Meteorology in Colombo, a hypothetical oil drift simulation was carried out using the INCOIS oil spill model.
The model was run from the vessel location, which is some 30 nautical miles off the Sri Lankan 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 pollutant drift is towards the northeast and moving 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," TM Balakrishnan Nair, Head, Ocean Science and Information Services Group (ISG) of INCOIS told 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, spreed 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 travelling 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 was chartered by the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).