Salvors work to secure ship leaking oil off Oman, risk firm Ambrey says

By Jonathan Saul

LONDON, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Salvors with specialist vessels and other equipment are heading to waters off Oman to try to contain the environmental damage from a spill of Russian crude that has spread for weeks, the risk management firm coordinating the operation said on Thursday.

The spill from the Caroline Bezengi tanker, apparently the result of an unexplained attack on the vessel in June, has spread around a nature reserve, and hit Oman's coastline on Wednesday.

Risk management firm Ambrey is coordinating the salvage operation and said it had contracted a "leading international oil spill response company", without naming it.

The response included salvage vessels, aircraft and specialists using 100 metric tons of equipment, it said.

The Caroline Bezengi, carrying an estimated 800,000 barrels of Russian oil and under international sanctions, ran aground on June 30 near an Omani marine nature reserve that is home to wildlife including humpback whales and Socotra cormorants.

An annual monsoon in the area is complicating the salvage efforts, Ambrey said.

Oman's agriculture, fisheries and water resources ministry said on Thursday it was monitoring the impact of the stricken tanker on sea life and on local fish products to make sure they are safe to market.

It advised fishermen to stay away from the area of the spill and report any unusual smells or noticeable changes in the water or marine life. 

TANKER SAILED FROM BLACK SEA PORT OF NOVOROSSIYSK

The tanker first reported difficulties off Yemen on June 8 after what maritime sources said appeared to be a blast.

Corey Ranslem, CEO of maritime security group Dryad Global, said that damage visible in an image that Ambrey released of the grounded vessel showed burn marks indicating a fire or explosion aboard, but that it was not immediately possible to determine what caused it.

No party has claimed an attack, but the vessel was navigating two separate wars on its journey from Russia to India.

In April it sailed from the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea, a flashpoint in the Russia-Ukraine war. Ukraine has carried out assaults on what is known as the shadow fleet of ageing vessels used to carry Russian oil.

The Caroline Bezengi, which is part of the shadow fleet, passed through the Suez Canal at the end of May, ship-tracking data shows. It then sailed past Yemen, where the Iran-aligned Houthi militants have entered a wider regional war between the U.S., Israel and Iran.

(Reporting by Jonathan Saul; Additional reporting by Tala Ramadan, Edward James Carron, Nayera Abdallah; Writing by John Davison; Editing by Mark Potter, Emelia Sithole-Matarise, Jan Harvey and Barbara Lewis)