The vessel is about 12 miles (16 or 17 km) from the port of Leixões
The tanker Greta K, which caught fire off Porto on Tuesday, has been towed to international waters, where it will remain for the next three days, the Douro and Leixões harbour master told Lusa on Saturday.
According to Silva Rocha, the vessel is “about 12 miles (16 or 17 km) from the port of Leixões, with two port tugs that will stay with it until an ocean tug hired by the shipowner arrives”.
“What we intend to do over the next three days, outside territorial waters, is to restore some of the ship’s capabilities, namely pumping, so that afterwards, either in Leixões or in Sines, the cargo can be unloaded,” he said.
The hired tugboat, he added, “was in the Mediterranean, arrived at dawn at the port of Leixões, refuelled and will be in transit to the position where the Greta K is located.
“Now it will be three days at least of intervention and (the tanker) will only go to the port of Leixões if all the safety and pumping capacities are met to be able to transfer the fuel to the terminal next to the port of Leixões,” he noted.
According to the Portuguese navy, the alert for the fire on the tanker Greta K, flying the Maltese flag, which was sailing about a mile and a half off the coast,near Praia dos Ingleses, in Foz do Douro, was given around 3.30pm on Tuesday to the Navy’s Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Lisbon.
The ship had 19 crew members on board, all Filipino nationals. Sixteen were removed in recent days. The vessel was carrying “diesel and jet fuel”.
Source: Lusa
