http://www.boston.com/dailynews/106/world/Emirates_says_oil_spill_under_:.shtml

Emirates says oil spill under control

By Associated Press, 4/16/2001 17:41

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Holes in the hull of tanker that sank off the coast of Dubai, leaking thousands of gallons of smuggled Iraqi oil, have been plugged and the spill brought under control, the official Emirates news agency reported Monday.

The Zainab hit rough waters Saturday and sank about 17 miles from the port Jebel Ali with more than 1 million gallons of fuel oil on board, according to the Bahrain-based U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet. The crew was rescued.

The Georgian-flagged tanker had been intercepted earlier by the Navy for smuggling Iraqi oil in violation of U.N. sanctions, fleet spokesman Cmdr. Jeff Gradeck said. The Navy patrols the Gulf for suspected oil smuggling.

Emirates officials, however, said the vessel had less than 380,000 gallons of fuel on board. The leaks were plugged and the spill treated with chemicals, Health Minister Hamed Abdulrahman Al-Madfa said late Sunday, according to WAM, the news agency.

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority said it took precautionary measures to prevent contamination of water sources at Jebel Ali-area desalination plants. A network of booms were laid to protect water sources, Director-General Saeed Mohammed Al-Tayer told WAM.

In Sharjah, an emirate about 20 miles north of Jebel Ali, the Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority temporarily closed units at a desalination plant until a leak near the pumps was treated, WAM said.

The tanker was en route to an international holding area for ships that violate sanctions when it sank, Gradeck said.

Ships carrying smuggled Iraqi oil routinely pass through the Emirates' waters. But after a spill from an oil barge suspected of carrying Iraqi fuel contaminated some 9 miles of its coastline in 1998, the Emirates began cracking down on sanctions violators.

In January last year, a tanker carrying 265,000 gallons of oil from Abu Dhabi to Somalia sank in bad weather 4 miles off the Emirates' coast, spilling about 90,000 gallons of crude.

Under U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, Iraq can sell oil as long as most of the proceeds go toward meeting Iraqis' basic needs. Oil smuggled outside the oil-for-food deal, as well as the vessels carrying it, are auctioned off.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001