The Colombo Magistrate’s Court has directed authorities to obtain samples from crude oil stored inside the oil tanker “MT New Diamond” and copies of the vessel data records.

The court also instructed the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to record statements from the Captain and crew members of the distressed crude oil tanker, Ada Derana reporter said. 

The court granted permission for the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) to obtain samples from the crude oil inside the distressed tanker.

This was following a request made by Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris, appearing on behalf of the MEPA and the CID, when the case was taken up before magistrate Lanka Jayaratne today (11).

The Deputy Solicitor General informed the court that investigations indicate that crew members who were on duty at the time of the fire had neglected their responsibility to notify the relevant agencies and authorities regarding the matter.

He stated that they had also failed to implement the automatic fire fighting methods which should be immediately carried out when such a fire breaks out in a vessel.

He said that following the blaze onboard the tanker layers of oil have mixed with the sea water and that samples of this sea water have been obtained by MEPA officials and sent to the Government Analyst’s Department for tests. 

The Deputy Solicitor General added that investigations are presently ongoing in order to ascertain whether the oil that had mixed with the sea water had in fact leaked from the distressed ship and how and that for this purpose the requested that permission be granted to the MEPA to obtain oil samples from inside the tanker.

The magistrate accepted the request and granted permission to obtain samples from the crude oil inside the tanker. 

A fuel slick about 10 to 30 meters wide and about a nautical mile long had recently been detected near the oil tanker, which was on fire for several days following an explosion in the boiler of the main engine room.