Beach secured, oil pumped out of cargo

Two tugboats of the Mauritius Ports Authority, namely Le Labourdonnais and Sir Gaëtan Duval, and the bunker barge, the Minorque, were at work to help pump oil from the ship.

The operation started after several procedures were implemented under the Contingency Oil Spill Plan to keep risks of any oil spill to a minimum. Some 880 metres of anti-oil spill buoys were placed on the sea, securing the beach.

The Minorque had been especially chartered to store the heavy oil. In that vein, a special crisis cell including the National Coast Guard, the Special Mobile Force and the Ministry of Environment met on Sunday to analyse the situation and the means used by Five Oceans Salvage, Greece to bailout Angel 1.

An officer of the NCG said it was difficult to say when the pumping of the heavy oil would be over as the weather was affecting the operation.