Britain has been spared a major oil spill after Norwegian registered tanker Borga ran aground in Mill Bay near Milford Haven, South Wales, carrying 112,000 metric tons of crude oil.
The vessel was about to deliver the crude to the nearby Texaco Ltd. Pembroke refinery at Milford Haven. It ran ashore Oct. 29 in good weather, apparently after failure of its steering gear.
Reports said the double hull Borga had been holed in at least one ballast tank, but no oil leakage occurred. The U.K. Department of Transport is expected to prepare a formal report on the accident.
Salvage company Smit International of Rotterdam was called in to try to refloat the Borga. A first attempt to recover the tanker failed Oct 30.
A Smit official said the salvage team pumped more than 10,000 metric tons of crude from the stricken tanker, after which five tugs pulled it away from shore about midday Oct. 31.
Smit towed the Borga into the harbor at Milford Haven, where remaining crude oil was delivered to Texaco.
SPILL STATISTICS
Meanwhile, on Oct. 31 the U.K. trade ministry reported offshore oil and gas production is one of Britain's "greenest" industries."Oil spills from offshore installations are minimal," the ministry said, "particularly compared with other sources of oil in the North Sea." Overflights carried out for the Department of Trade & Industry to inspect North Sea oil installations show that during April 1994-March 1995 more than 1,839 observations found 92 traces of oil spills. The average spill in these cases was only 11.31. of oil, or about 2 1/2 gal.
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