Ship owners to foot spill costs

HS Alcina leaked up to 300 litres oil into the Whangarei Harbour. Photo / Shipspotting

Owners of an overseas vessel that leaked oil into the Whangarei Harbour will not be prosecuted but will have to pay a $20,000 clean-up bill.

Up to 300 litres of oil was estimated to have spilled from crude oil tanker HS Alcina's bunker at Marsden Pt at about 4pm on Friday, which triggered a full-incident response. The ship left for Brazil at 5pm on Saturday with conditions imposed by the Classification Society - a non-government organisation that establishes and maintains technical standards for the construction and operation of ships and offshore structures.

The conditions were it should not fill its tanks over a certain level, to investigate further and seek repairs at the next port, if required.

Jim Lyle, regional harbourmaster for the Northland Regional Council, said a full-scale clean-up was conducted on Friday evening as well as at dawn on Saturday but no traces of any ecological damage from the spill was discovered. The clean-up was wound down about midday Saturday.

"We won't prosecute the vessel owners because it was a mechanical fault rather than negligence, the clean-up was successful and they [vessel owners] co-operated with us.

"All we'll do is to recover our costs and we'll be sending them our bill of about $20,000."

Mr Lyle said the spill was the first such incident at the port in 10 years. The spill occurred when the ship was discharging a load of Kuwaiti crude oil at a refinery jetty.

The Department of Conservation has yet to survey any damage to waters it manages near the spill.

Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) is satisfied with the response by the refinery and regional council staff.

Spokeswoman Pania Shingleton said two maritime officers from MNZ conducted an inspection on board the vessel on Saturday to assess its seaworthiness.

"Divers examined the vessel and confirmed that there was no further leak from the ship's hull," she said. Oil that was not able to be recovered before dark on Friday was spread very thinly, and most appeared to have been broken up by wind and tide movements." Refinery staff will keep an eye on the beaches and the coastline over the next few days.