South Africa Links MSC Boxship to Offshore Oil Spill in Eastern Cape Region

An investigation has been launched in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa after authorities received a report of an “oily substance” spill. The South Africa Incident Management Organization is leading the investigation in the Algoa Bay area near Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), a popular sheltered anchorage for vessels making the transit around the Cape or inbound to South Africa.

An unidentified vessel filed a report with the authorities on September 7 saying it had “spotted oil-like blobs and an oily sheen on the water.” The Vessel Traffic Service launched the investigation and made the initial determination that the oily substance was coming from the MSC Apollo. Later reports said they found stains on the hull of the MSC vessel.

MSC Apollo is one of the smaller vessels of the fleet operating a route between Africa and Asia. The vessel, built in 2002 and registered in Cyprus, is 81,171 dwt with a capacity of approximately 6,500 TEU. MSC’s vessel schedule reflects the ship as having sailed from Port Louis, Mauritius to Durban and departing on September 4. It was holding in Aloga Bay before a scheduled arrival at the Cogea terminal in the Gqeberha area on Monday. The current AIS signal shows the vessel remaining in the anchorage.

Due to darkness on Saturday, plans were to start surveillance on Sunday and a multi-department incident management effort began. High winds on Sunday limited the efforts but an overflight took place in the afternoon and did not locate the oil. Rangers on a foot patrol of the beaches also reported they did not spot the oil.

The South African authorities are in contact with the vessel’s agents and insurers and developed an oil spill trajectory model. Bad weather however has been preventing some of the effort but was expected to subside by Tuesday so that rangers could access the St Croix Island group, an important bird sanctuary approximately five miles offshore. The vessel’s insurers also agreed to provide a drone to scan the islands for oiled birds.

Plans were also made to clean the hull of the MSC Apollo while it remained at anchor to stop any oily sheen from being transferred to the water. Rough seas prevented the hull cleaning from proceeding on Sunday.

South Africa reports that efforts are underway to both determine the cause of the oil spill from the MSC Apollo and the extent of the spill. Teams are also working on how best to contain the oil spill to stop its spread in Algoa Bay and to protect the wildlife on the nearby islands of St Croix and Bird Island.

Bad weather this winter season has been playing havoc on shipping in the region. In addition to the bulker Ultra Galaxy that was wrecked on the Atlantic Coast, there have been three reports of containers lost overboard from vessels in the region.