An accidental oil spill in the Belgian port of Antwerp had led to a paralysis of maritime traffic on this major global trade platform on Friday. The amount of oil spilled into the water remained unknown at midday.
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Maritime traffic was able to resume on Friday, April 10 in the early afternoon on the main arm of the Scheldt serving the port of Antwerp, Belgium, after a paralysis due to an oil leak, announced the company operating the port. At midday, traffic in the northern part of the port, towards the high seas, was completely stopped following an accidental oil spill into the river on Thursday evening
This pollution is the subject of a large cleaning operation and the dock where the spill occurred remains inaccessible. But « the Scheldt is now reopened for navigation, » the Port of Antwerp-Bruges company said in a statement.
« The pollution nevertheless spread to the Scheldt during the night, » said the Port of Antwerp-Bruges company earlier in the day, in a statement. The leak took place during a ship’s supply operation at the Deurganck Basin, one of the main terminals of the port, on the left bank of the Scheldt. It was stopped and depollution operations were quickly initiated on the boats concerned.
Traffic had been interrupted upstream of the terminal, from the high seas, and several locks had to be closed, according to the same source.
This led to the suspension of all traffic in the northern part of the port, facing the high seas, preventing access to container ships and cargo ships using the Scheldt. Several dozen ships were thus blocked, in both directions of traffic, according to the Belgian media.
The amount of oil spilled into the water remained unknown on Friday at midday.
Possible impact on natural areas along the river
The operating company of the port, which jointly manages the ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge, said it « regrets » the incident, referring to its possible impact « on vulnerable natural areas along the Scheldt ». « We are doing everything we can to limit both operational and ecological damage as much as possible, » she says.
For its part, the shipping carrier MSC confirmed that one of its ships had been involved in the incident, refusing to say more. Our priority is safety, » a spokeswoman for MSC in Belgium told Agence France-Presse, adding that the firm was focused on protecting « the crew, the terminal, nature ».
The port of Antwerp, with its tens of kilometers of docks, is the second largest freight port in Europe after Rotterdam, in the neighboring Netherlands. It is considered one of Belgium’s economic lungs.
source : Le monde
