The Gibraltar Port Authority (GPA) successfully dealt with a small oil spill on Wednesday 8 November 2017 at approximately 4pm. The small spill occurred between two vessels, the C Rock and St George, who were transferring bunkers when a small overspill occurred.
Operations were immediately ceased by both vessels and on receiving the report from C Rock, the GPA immediately launched its oil spill response emergency plan. It is estimated that between 50 to 100 litres of fuel went into the sea but this was recovered very quickly by the oil spill responders and clean up operations on both vessels are currently underway.
The GPA has opened a formal investigation into this small incident.
J Manuel Tirado, CEO and Captain of the Port (Acting) thanked all parties involved for their quick response in this incident and commented that the quick actions of both vessels and the oil recovery team resulted in the oil spill being contained with minimum impact on the environment.