Byzantio heads for Antwerp

The ageing oil tanker Byzantio, under siege from environmentalists who claim it poses a spill threat, has switched destinations to Belgium's port of Antwerp, the ship owner said yesterday.

The route from Estonia's Baltic coast will not enter French, Spanish or Portuguese waters after these countries began chasing suspected spill threats out to sea.

"The charterer told us to go to Antwerp. We would arrive at the pilot station near Flushing tomorrow morning. The ship will be discharging there," said Gerry Ventouris of Greece's Aegean Shipping Management, which owns the Byzantio.

The 26-year-old ship, which loaded 53,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil from Estonia on Friday, was chartered by Swiss-based Russian oil trader Crown Resources, the same company which chartered the ill-fated Prestige .

It was originally scheduled to sail to the Dutch port of Rotterdam, with options to go as far as Gibraltar.

"If it's confirmed, there will be an inspection by the port authority in Antwerp," spokesman for the Transport Ministry, Benoit Lechat said.

An Antwerp port authority spokesman said it had so far not received no confirmation of the Byzantio's imminent arrival.

France has positioned a navy patroller near Dunkirk to look out for the Byzantio and environmental activists from Greenpeace have requested for the British government to take similar action.

The Byzantio is Greek-owned, flies a Maltese flag which is on a safety black-list, and was detained in Ireland for failing a port inspection earlier this year, according to Lloyds.

Environmental activists from Greenpeace failed to prevent the ship from leaving Estonia's Tallinn port on Friday, fearing a repeat of the Byzantioestige spill, but managed to intercept the tanker off Denmark using dinghies and hang a banner on the hull.

Later this week, the 22-year-old Express and 21-year-old Burgas are set to load heavy fuel oil in Tallinn and sail across the North Sea, English Channel, European Atlantic coast and Mediterranean before transiting the Suez canal towards Asia.

Aegean Shipping Management, the Greek owners of the Byzantio, said it was still keen for Spanish and French experts to inspect the tanker.

They said the tanker had been certified by ship classification society Det Norske Veritas as being CAP 1 (Condition Assessment Byzantioogramme level 1), the highest level of seaworthiness.