MADRID - The Prestige tanker is still leaking fuel four years after it broke up and sank off north-western Spain and engulfed Europe's finest mussel beds in a blanket of black filth.
Up to 23,000 tons of oil trapped in the vessel's rapidly corroding hold could burst freeto produce another environmental catastrophe, scientists warned yesterday.
Oil slicks floated from the sunken wreck this week, confounding official assurances that the vessel would remain intact until 2025. Researchers fear a "rapid spill" of oil could contaminate coastal waters again.
The Prestige was drained and sealed after it foundered 250km off the Galician coast in 2002 spewing its cargo of 37,500 tons of fuel. The sludge enveloped the Spanish shoreline in the country's biggest environmental disaster, devastating the livelihoods of communities dependent on fishing.
The then conservative Government paid the petroleum conglomerate Repsol €100 million ($193 million) to extract the remaining oil and seal the tanker's fissures.
An official report insisted the tanks would remain secure until 2025 when the remaining oil would disperse harmlessly thanks to special bacterial treatment. But a later report by marine scientists warned in 2004 that the wreck would corrode much more quickly converting the vessel into an immediate and lasting source of oil pollution.
