The Ministry of the Environment had initially claimed that the ship contained 750 tonnes of diesel. “It poses no immediate risk of pollution,” authorities said on Friday.
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The risk of an ecological disaster is removed. The Tunisian Ministry of the Environment announced that the tanks of the oil tanker, wrecked last Saturday off the southeast of the country, were empty on Friday 22 April.
Tunisian authorities initially said the ship stranded in the Gulf of Gabes was carrying 750 tons of diesel. The ministry did not explain the reasons for this confusion. “It poses no risk of pollution in the immediate future”, he added. This discovery was made “following the operations of Tunisian and Italian divers”after the arrival on site of a pollution control ship sent by Rome, according to the captain of the Tunisian navy to AFP.
Gray areas remain on the oil tanker’s route and the nature of its activities. “It may be that the ship is not actually active in the transport of fuels”, estimated the captain of the navy. Some experts believe that this ship may have served as a floating “service station” supplying boats transiting through the strategic area of the Gulf of Gabes.