The French embassy in Denmark has sent a letter to the Danish Foreign Ministry requesting Maersk Supply Service deal with significant volumes of oil in the tanks of two offshore vessels which sank in French waters at the end of last year.
The two ships – Maersk Searcher and Maersk Shipper – sank while being towed to a Turkish scrapyard for recycling in December.
Maersk Supply Service has informed the French authorities that the two ships contain around 192 cu m of different types of oil, accounting for about 6% of the total tank capacity.
The company conducted an inspection of the shipwrecks in January and noted there was no oil leakage from the sunken ships.
In March, French coast guard agency Prefecture Maritime Atlantique asked Maersk Supply Service to continue to investigate the risk of pollution from the two sunken ships.
The agency said it would keep monitoring the vessels over the next three years, and Maersk Supply Service will be forced to pump the tanks if there’s any signs of contamination found.