The Port of Sines management has reported that a fuel oil leak has polluted the harbour and that the area has been closed to shipping.
Maritime police are investigating the origin of the tons of fuel oil whose leakage caused the closure of the container terminal harbour while clean-up operations were set in motion.
The official announcement reports that the spillage happened on Sunday with the Administration of the Ports of Sines and the Algarve (APS) confirming that its emergency action plan had been put into operation.
The Captain of the Port of Sines, José Gouveia, said "several tons of fuel oil" as used by ships was leaked into the harbour of the Sines container terminal.
While not hazarding a guess at the tonnage, Gouviea said the fuel is "medium density fuel oil, not diesel" and that the Ports Authority may need additional resources from the General Directorate of the Maritime Pollution Authority, due to the volume of the spill.
"The Ports Authority, which has responsibility in such situations, immediately moved equipment to the site and containment booms were placed around two ships suspected to be the source of the pollution," reported Gouveia, adding that an additional boom has been placed across the harbour entrance to stop the fuel oil leaking from the port into the sea.
While the port is closed to shipping, the Maritime Police is investigating the source of the spill by interviewing the skipper of a fuel supply vessel and of a ship being refuelled, which "seem to be the source of the problem."
According to the Port Captain, the occurrence rates a Level 4, the lowest under the Clean Sea Plan.
"Grade four is for small spills that normally are contained and resolved by port management, so this is the lowest with grade, 'one' being the the most serious," said Gouveia.
This incident, given an almost benign spin by the Ports Authority and the Captain of the Port, has not warranted the attention of the nation's mainstream press.
Pollution from 40,000 to 50,000 tons of oil triggered a major clear-up operation in 1975 when the Jakob Maersk, a tanker registered in Denmark, struck a sand bank on January 29, while entering the port of Leixões.
In 1989, 25,000 tonnes of heavily weathered oil from the tanker Aragon polluted the shoreline of Porto Santo Island in Madeira.
Major incidents include the 2002 oil spill in Galicia caused by the sinking of the oil tanker MV Prestige. This spill polluted thousands of kilometers of coastline and more than 1,000 beaches on the Spanish, French and Portuguese coast, as well as causing great harm to the local fishing industry. The spill is the largest environmental disaster in the history of both Spain and Portugal.
Accidents can and do happen and, as in last weekend's spill in Sines, emergency systems will seldom ensure enough people and equipment in the right place at the right time to limit the effects on the environment.
The Sines spill was Level 4, a category applicable when "there is no pollution or for the smallest spills, i.e. in-harbour fuelling accidents".
A more serious Level 3 alert has to be issued by the Captain of the Port and is for "spills where the impact is limited to the area of his jurisdiction" e.g. if this spill had affected a wider area.
This accident is small scale but concerning to anti-oil campaigners as incidents of spillages inevitably will rise should Portugal become an oil producing country and use Sines for storeage and processing.
Should there be a spillage of a Hazardous or Noxious Substance (HNS), the effects could be serious, as the Direcção-Geral da Autoridade Marítima itself notes:
"Portugal has not carried out any risk assessments specifically for the transport of HNS, its capability for responding to HNS incidents is limited and mainly relies on the same resources as for oil pollution.
"Portugal does not currently have any specialised equipment for monitoring HNS spills, nor specialised vessels, a specialised response team or specialised body providing scientific advice on marine incidents involving HNS."
As if planned, a leak at the nearby Repsol Polymers plant closed down operations on the same Sunday morning as the fuel oil leak.
A black cloud of vapour (see picture below) was seen coming from the plant but the company cheerily informed the media that no equipment had been damaged, nobody had been hurt and that there was really nothing to worry about as its staff were working hard to stop the leak.
