Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 15, 1990 TAG: 9006150296
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GALVESTON, TEXAS LENGTH: Medium
Officials planned to apply the bacteria today, the first use of microbes in water to clean up an oil spill, state officials said.
Also Thursday, the Mega Borg's chief engineer told a Norwegian panel meeting in Galveston that one of the vessel's pumps had been leaking about six hours before the blast.
Balinder Singh said the pump leaked as the tanker's crude oil cargo was being transferred to a smaller ship. Singh said he had stopped the leak by tightening a coupling about six hours before the Friday blast.
Six days after the first of a series of explosions in the area of the engine room, a small fire continued to burn aboard the crippled Norwegian vessel, in the Gulf of Mexico 57 miles offshore.
"It looks like the fire is being contained to a very small area in the engine room," Coast Guard spokesman Gene Maestas said.
Flames could be seen on the deck's rear section, and four fireboats showered the Mega Borg with water cannon. The rear section, shrouded in smoke, continued to be awash.
Oil escaping from a hole in the vessel's 5.5 million-gallon center tank apparently was spilling at a slower rate, although Coast Guard officials had no specifics. No other leaks have been found.
The 886-foot Mega Borg, which carried 38 million gallons of light African crude oil, already has lost about 3 million gallons of oil since late Friday's explosion; most of it has burned off or evaporated.
About 12,000 gallons remained on the water Thursday, Coast Guard Capt. Thomas Greene said.
An oil slick stretched about 12 miles northwest of the ship, with scattered patches extending another 18 miles. Its width varied. The Coast Guard offered no specific figure Thursday. The previous day, it said the width stretched to 10 miles in spots.
A plane spread up to 2,000 gallons of dispersant on sections near theship Thursday, and at least a dozen skimmers and several booms sucked oil off the water's surface. Five booms were working in the ship's vicinity.
Salvage crews planned to begin transferring oil from the No. 4 cargo tank, where the leak occurred, to the No. 5 cargo tank, which is empty, Greene said. The effort should stop the spill, cut off the fuel feeding the fire, and help correct the listing of the ship.
by CNB