Marine Emergency Mutual Aid Centre News

Iraqi Oil Smuggling Attempt Goes Sour in the Persian Gulf

An Iranian team on Monday stopped an oil leak from a ship that sank in the Gulf last week while apparently smuggling Iraqi fuel oil, a regional marine body said. The Bahrain-based Marine Emergency Mutual Aid Centre (MEMAC) said the holes through which oil was leaking from the Honduras-flagged Georgios had been closed, limiting the environmental risk, and a Kuwaiti team had helped control the oil slick by using dispersants. "We can say now that the danger is over," MEMAC's director, Captain Abdul Munem al-Janahi said, estimating that half of the 1,900 tons of oil the ship was carrying may have leaked out. "The Iranian team is using under-water cameras to take shots of the ship's position to help study the best way to salvage it," he said.