MOSCOW, October 19 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian fuel-laden container ship is drifting at a safe distance from the rocky Canadian shore and presents no risk of a fuel spill, Royal Canadian Navy Lt. Greg Menzies said late on Saturday.
There is currently no risk of the Simushir cargo ship hitting rocks after it was towed 24 nautical miles (44 kilometers) away from Canada's British Columbia shore, Associated Press reports.
The vessel is reported to be loaded with some 400 metric tons of bunker fuel and 60 metric tons of diesel, and therefore could potentially present an environmental hazard.
On Friday, British Columbia Environment Minister Mary Polak said in a statement published on the province's official website that "the province is also contacting its partners in the B.C. Pacific States Oil Spill Task Force both to notify them of the risk and to ask them to provide mutual aid as needed based on the outcome of efforts to restore power to the vessel".
The Simushir carrier ship, with a crew of 11, was going from the US state of Washington to Russia when it lost power on Friday morning. The captain was injured and rescued from the vessel.
British Columbia still remembers the massive oil spill that occurred near Alaska in 1989, when Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck Bligh Reef and spilled 260,000 to 750,000 barrels of crude oil over the next days.
