An oil tanker carrying nearly 5 million gallons of oil and gasoline was struck by an ice floe and ran aground while loading oil products at an Alaska refinery on Thursday, causing a spill, a state official and the refining company said according to Reuters. "At this time we do not have an estimate as to the amount of product released," refinery owner Tesoro Corp. said in a statement. The Tesoro-chartered double-hulled tanker, the Seabulk Pride, was loading heavy vacuum gas oil and unleaded gasoline from the refinery in Nikiski, Alaska, on the Cook Inlet, the company said. It said the ice floe parted the mooring line and sent the 600-foot (183-meter) tanker adrift before it went aground about half a mile (800 metres) north of the dock, and that the vessel's tanks were secure. Ice conditions at the time of the accident were "extreme," with a lot of ice floating in the water, said Lynda Giguere of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. The tanker is owned by Seabulk International Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Seacor Holdings Inc.. --More 23 46 Local Time 20 46 GMT
