Beleaguered Spanish maritime authorities suffered further bad news this week when the single-hulled bunker tanker Spabunker IV sank in heavy weather early on January 21. Oil was observed on the surface within hours. The vessel was running from the Cepsa refinery at Algeciras to the Cepsa terminal when the incident occurred. Spabunker IV 'is managed by Ciresa Bunker, part of Spain's Boluda Group. Ciresa's head of inspections Jose Villaverde told Fairplay that the ship had settled 50 m below the surface, although not far from the coast, and was leaking. He said the ship's 50-year-old captain, Miguel Roig, was missing but the two other crew members were safe. It is believed the 1,421-DWT vessel was cany-ing 900 tonnes of 180 cSt fuel oil, 100 tonnes of gas oil and 70 tonnes of MDO.
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