Oil Slicks Head Toward Danish Coastline After Tanker Collision

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03/29 21:05 Oil Slicks Head Toward Danish Coastline After Tanker Collision By Morag MacKinnon

Copenhagen, March 30 (Bloomberg) -- Gale-force winds and high waves are hampering efforts to prevent 2,000 tons of oil in separate slicks from reaching the coast of Denmark, the Associated Press and Reuters said.

The oil spilled into the Baltic Sea between Denmark and Germany when a tanker collided with a freighter late Wednesday.

Winds as strong as 72 kilometers (45 miles) an hour broke the leaking oil into dozens of slicks that were heading toward the Danish islands of Falster and Moen, some 120 kilometers south of the capital Copenhagen, AP said.

``It's probably the biggest sea pollution registered hitherto in Danish waters,'' Agence France-Presse quoted Danish naval officer Jens Hylsted as saying.

The tanker, the Baltic Carrier, was on its way from Estonia to the Swedish port of Gothenburg, when it collided with a cargo ship taking sugar from Cuba to Latvia, Reuters said. The Baltic Carrier, a double-hulled vessel built last year, had a cargo of 30,000 tons of oil. The collision ripped a 20-meter (66 foot) hole in one side of the tanker.

Six ships from Denmark, Germany and Sweden were attempting to contain the spill and the Danish Emergency Management Agency placed floating barriers near the shore to try to keep oil from reaching the rocky beaches.

Oil has stopped leaking from the tanker, which is at anchor in rough seas, Reuters said, citing unidentified Danish navy officials. It isn't in danger of sinking and no crewmembers were injured in the collision.

The cargo ship didn't suffer serious damage during the accident and headed back to the German port of Rostock. http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?ptitle=Top%20World%20News&s1=blk&tp=ad_topright_topworld&T=markets_bfgcgi_content99.ht&s2=blk&bt=ad_position1_windex&middle=ad_frame2_windex&s=AOsPp4xZsT2lsIFNs

-- Carl Jenkins (somewherepress@aol.com), March 30, 2001


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