A joint team from the Office of Merchant Marine and Ports (OMMP) and the Sahara Pipeline Transport Company (TRAPSA) has successfully completed the lightering operation on the oil tanker "Beks Bebek," which ran aground on July 11 at the Skhira port (Sfax governorate), carrying nearly 70,000 tonnes of diesel, the Transport Ministry announced on Saturday. In a press release issued on Saturday, nine days after the incident, the Transport Ministry said that an emergency plan, drawn up jointly by the OMMP in collaboration with TRAPSA, had been devised to rescue the oil tanker "Beks Bebek," which had subsequently been towed "to a safe location." The rescue team then began to lighten the tanker by transferring a cargo to another vessel deployed for this purpose, the ministry added, assuring that "every precaution has been taken to prevent any spillage of fuel into the sea." The rescue operation began last Thursday at midnight and ended on Saturday morning, according to the same source.
Source: Agence Tunis Afrique