NEW PLYMOUTH, New Zealand, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- New Zealand responders said Tuesday they were monitoring the shoreline following what was described as a minor oil spill last week.
Horizons Regional Council, which surveys the western coastline of the nation's northern island, provided few details of the volume in its statement, but said wave action was breaking up most of the residual oil.
Horizons manager emergency management Ian Lowe the spill was "relatively small" and happened about 40 miles from shore.
"If oil does reach our shores it will be in the form of small tar balls rather than as an oil slick," he said in a statement.
Local media reports the New Zealand subsidiary of Austrian company OMV was responsible for the spill. The company estimated about 2 barrels, or around 80 gallons of oil, spilled during the transfer from an oil storage facility to a tanker.
The company halted operations in the interim.
Cargo vessel MV Rena struck a reef off New Zealand in October 2011, spilling about 2,000 barrels of oil into the Bay of Plenty, on the opposite side of the island as the OMV incident. Radio New Zealand reports small amounts of residual oil were observed around the remains of the stricken vessel this week.
