TUNIS (AFP) — A tanker carrying 750 tons of diesel fuel from Egypt to Malta sank Saturday off Tunisia’s southeast coast, but officials said a large spill could be avoided.
According to authorities, the crew of the Xelo vessel had made a distress call on Friday night and sought refuge in Tunisian waters for bad weather. They then went down in the Gulf of Gabes the next morning.
Environment Minister Leila Chikhaoui said on Saturday that “the situation is under control” in an interview aired on state television.
“There are minimal leaks, which are not even visible to the naked eye and fortunately the oil is evaporating, so there should not be a disaster in the Gulf of Gabes,” said Mohamed Karray, spokesman for a court in Gabes.
The spokesman had said earlier that the tanker carrying 750 tons of diesel had issued the distress call before it “sunk this morning in Tunisian territorial waters.”
Equatorial Guinea-flagged Xelo was heading from Egypt to Malta when it requested entry into Tunisian waters.
According to vesseltracker.com, the tanker measures 58 meters (63 yards), long by nine meters (9.8 yard) wide.
According to a statement from the Tunisian environment ministry, it began taking water at seven kilometers (over four mile) offshore in the Gulf of Gabes. The engine room was then engulfed.
It stated that the seven-member crew had been evacuated by Tunisian authorities.
Environment Minister Leila Chikhaoui was traveling to Gabes “to evaluate the situation… and to take necessary preventive decisions in coordination with the regional authorities,” a ministry statement said.
Authorities have activated “the national emergency plan for the prevention of marine pollution with the aim of bringing the situation under control and avoiding the spread of pollutants.”
Karray, a court spokesperson, said that the Georgian captain and four Turks and two Azerbaijanis had been briefly admitted for checks and are now in a hotel.
The defense, interior, transport and customs ministries were working to avoid “a marine environmental disaster in the region and limit its impact,” the environment ministry said.
Before the ship sank, the ministry had described the situation as “alarming” but “under control.”
The Gulf of Gabes used to be a fishing area. However, activists claim it has been polluted by phosphate processing industry based nearby as well as the presence of a pipeline that brings oil from southern Tunisia.
The country’s last maritime accident was October 2018. In that year, the Tunisian freighter Ulysse crashed into the Virginia, a Cyprus-based vessel. It was anchored 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the northern tip on Corsica. This caused hundreds of tons fuel to spill into the Mediterranean.
It took several days to disentangle the boats and pump around 520 cubic meters (680 yards) of propulsion fuel that had escaped from tanks.
