As the environmental clean-up continued yesterday in Galway harbour, Statoil confirmed that 50,000 litres of gas oil had leaked from a storage tank at the company's premises in the city earlier this week.
However, much of this had been contained within the immediate area of the storage tank, and an unknown quantity had escaped into Galway Bay, the spokeswoman added. Galway City Council intends to take legal action against the company over the spillage on Wednesday.
Several fly-overs of the bay area by the Irish Coast Guard helicopter from Shannon yesterday confirmed that much of the gas oil had evaporated, but there was still a sheen of oil in the Lough Atalia area close to Statoil's Leeside terminal.
However, the harbour master, Capt Brian Sheridan, expected that yesterday evening's high tide would reveal the true state of the bay. A shore reconnaissance of the north side of the bay showed little evidence of environmental damage yesterday morning.
The Claddagh swans were described as safe from the spill but precautions were still being taken by Galway Swan Rescue, the harbour authorities and the city council. Most of the oil had been retained in the "lay-by" area of the docks, and had been boomed off by the harbour company. This was being sucked out yesterday.
Statoil said investigations were continuing into the cause. The initial theory is that a faulty valve installed as part of the foam and water safety system on a tank had let water in - allowing the tank to overflow.
The company said the last shipment of oil by sea into the terminal was on Sunday, and denied that there had been any problems with offloading.
Claddagh boat owners have been badly affected by the incident.