Fuel-system problem stopped ship

A fuel-system problem aboard the MSC Edith was the reason its engines failed, sparking an oil spill scare off Southland on Friday.

The 24,500-tonne container ship, which was heading from Melbourne to Port Chalmers, lost power at 9.50am and had Environment Southland's oil response team on high alert as it drifted closer to shore for about three hours.

The ship's crew lowered the anchor at 1pm about 3.6km south of the Sisters and east of Waikawa, where it stayed until 5pm when power was restored.

A Maritime New Zealand spokesman said a maritime safety inspector visited the ship on Saturday and confirmed that air trapped in the fuel system during a recent routine cleaning of the fuel filters was the cause of the power failure.

Maritime NZ was satisfied with the actions taken by the ship's owners to fix the problem, and would be taking no further action, he said.

Environment Southland's oil response team sent a plane to investigate the situation on Friday and determined there was no oil spill.

- © Fairfax NZ News