Two merchant vessels collided at the Gulf of Kutch Friday night leading to an oil slick in the Arabian sea, Gujarat’s PRO Defence confirmed a day later. No casualty has been reported yet.

“Prima facie, it appears the collision took place due to navigational error. Indian Coast Guard (ICG) is monitoring the situation for preventing any possible oil spill,” ANI quoted Indian Coast Guard (ICG) officials. 

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The two merchant vessels – Aviator and Atlantic Grace – collided on November 26 night, the defence spokesperson in the state said in a tweet.

Indian Coast Guard (ICG) ships are on standby in the vicinity and monitoring the situation, the official added. 

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Gujarat defence PRO’s initial tweet claimed that there was no oil slick reported.

@IndianCoastGuard Ships in the area incl. Pollution Control stand-by in vicinity & monitoring the situation,” the tweet read. 

However, reports on Saturday say that there has been an oil spill in the area. 

The Gulf of Kutch is an inlet of the Arabian sea along the Western coast of India in Gujarat. It faces daily tides with the highest potential of tidal energy generation.

It was in 2012 that the vessel traffic service was opened in the Gulf of Kutch as a part of a joint initiative of the Kandla Port Trust, the Gujarat Maritime Board, and the Director-General of Lighthouses and Lightships of India.

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The Gulf of Kutch is one of the busiest routes for all the oil trade shipments of India. It has witnessed several oil spills in the past years.

Not only the Gulf of Kutch, but other vessel routes in India have also seen some major oil spills over the years. In 2010, a major oil spill occurred on Mumbai coast after the Panama-flagged MV MSC Chitra and MV Khalijia 3 collided. The former was  outbound from South Mumbai’s Nava Sheva port. The collision caused about 200 cargo containers from MSC Chitra to be thrown into the Arabian Sea. 

The Ennore oil spill was an occurred outside the Kamarajar Port in Ennore near Chennai in Tamil Nadu in 2017. The spill occurred when an outbound empty tanker BW Maple collided with an inbound loaded oil tanker Dawn Kanchipuram.