Indonesian Navy will sue owner of MT Natuna Sea oil tanker

The Indonesian navy force will sue the owner of the Panama-registered MT Natuna Sea for spilling over five million barrels of crude oil in the Suara Batu Berantai water near Batam island, Riau Pos reported on Saturday.

Commodore Dipo Rahardjo, who is in charge in the area, said in Jakarta on Friday that the navy was preparing the suit and assessing the impact of the oil spills on naval and fishermen activities.

"The scale of the impact of the oil spill is being assessed, involving officials from the communication ministry and the local office of the environment impact management agency," he said, adding the tanker was being detained for further investigation.

The Panama-registered tanker Natuna Sea ran aground in the Suar Batu Berantai sea in the Singapore strait on Tuesday, spilling over 5 millions of crude oil into the sea.

Meanwhile Minister for Marine and Fishery Sarwono Kusumaatmadja said in Jakarta on Friday that sweeping the oil spill would difficult because the government die have a national level agency which has the responsibility to handle the oil spill case.

The minister said that at present the oil spill is handled by state owned oil company Pertamina and the nearby port authority. "We don't have an agency that has the responsibility to handle oil spill taking place outside the working area of Pertamina and the port authority," he was quoted saying by Kompas.

According to the minister, the oil spill near the Batam island is now handled by Pertamina and a company from Singapore. (*)