Fuel has begun seeping from the engine of a small tanker that capsized at an Indonesian port this week, but its hold remains secure, the port master said yesterday.The Karisma Selatan, which has a capacity of 500,000 litres, capsized shortly after it was filled with marine fuel at Surabaya's Tanjung Perak port early Tuesday. Nobody was injured.
"There is a very small quantity of fuel that has leaked out of the ship, but we already have rubber oil booms in place around the tanker," port master Rocky Ahmad Suherman said.Late Tuesday he said that the ship had been examined and "the cargo is still intact; we are sure that there is no leakage".Suherman said authorities were coordinating with the ship's owner as they tried to work out the best way to salvage the ship. The tanker was operated by local agent PT Pasifik Selatan.
"We are trying to determine if it is best to upright the ship then suck the cargo out or the other way around," he said, adding that the salvage operation could take up to two weeks."What we are doing now is trying to stabilise the ship with buoys so it does not completely overturn," Suherman said.In initial photographs taken of the capsized ship it appeared to have totally turned over, but later images taken when water levels fell showed that it had only fallen to one side.An investigation was underway to determine the cause of the mishap and the ship's captain remained under questioning, Suherman said.
The state news agency Antara, citing a spokesman for the port administration, reported yesterday that preliminary results of the investigation had showed that the ship's ballast had not been properly filled.Surabaya, on the main island of Java, is Indonesia's second city.
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