The Sea Empress under repair

The development comes after moves to head off a repeat of the oil disaster, which devastated more than 100 miles of Welsh coastline, have been speeded up by the European Parliament.

MEPs have voted to accelerate the phasing out of single-hull oil tankers and to replace them with safer double-hull vessels.

The single-hulled Sea Empress spilled more than 72,000 tonnes of crude oil into the sea when it ran aground at the entrance to Milford Haven estuary in Pembrokeshire, west Wales.

A marine accident investigation report later concluded that oil pollution would have been avoided in the initial grounding if the vessel had been constructed to the double-hull design.

Thousands of seabirds were killed in the disaster

Critics also argued that having a powerful tug on hand to tow the vessel into open water would also have reduced the environmental destruction.

The deployment of the Far Sky should go some way to assauging fears that a Sea Empress-like disaster could be repeated.