Spain To Check Prestige Wreck For Oil Leaks

Investigators will dive more than 3,500 metres to the wreck of the Prestige this summer to check how much oil is leaking out.

Investigators will dive more than 3,500 metres to the wreck of the Prestige this summer to check how much oil is leaking out of the oil tanker which sank off Spain's northwest coast in 2002.

The Spanish government said on Friday that oil company Repsol would do a visual check of the seabed where the Prestige is lying and see what state the tanker hull is in.

Repsol led a team that emptied the Prestige of as much fuel as possible after it lost a five-day battle against the waves and winds, broke in two and sank, coating the Galician coast in black oil.

The Prestige was carrying 77,000 tonnes of oil when it went down some 250 km (140 miles) out at sea in one of Europe's worst spills. Officials said it had leaked about 63,000 tonnes.

Most of the rest was sucked out from the wreck but the government said about 1,500 tonnes were still left and were leaking at a rate of about 20 litres a day.

"The aim is to check how much oil might be leaking, study the state of the hull and see what other preventative measures might be needed," the government said in a statement.

The 3 million euro ($4 million) inspection will be carried out between June and September when the conditions are calmest off Spain's stormy northwestern coast.