Pollution experts in Pembrokeshire have been put on standby to help deal with the aftermath of the sinking of an oil tanker off the coast of Spain.

Marine salvage crews who dealt with the Sea Empress disaster six years ago are ready to assist Spanish authorities after the Prestige broke in two and sank off Galicia on Tuesday, leaking thousands of tonnes of fuel oil into the sea.

Simon Rickaby: On standby

The Marine Pollution Salvage Centre in Milford Haven houses the government's specialist equipment and is the only one of its kind in the UK.

It is run for the Marine and Coastguard Agency (MCA) by the DV Howells Company whose managing director Simon Rickaby said their equipment was ready to be flown to Spain.

"We are waiting for the go ahead with a maritime response team," he said.

"We work for the MCA who have naturally offered help to the Spanish authorities.

"We are ready to go with personnel and equipment if necessary."

Thousands of sea birds were affected

The equipment stored in Milford Haven was used when the Sea Empress ran aground in February 1996 spilling 72,000 tonnes of crude oil into the estuary.

More than 200km of the west Wales coastline was affected and the marine environment badly affected.

Crews were also put into service nearly 3 years ago in the Bay of Biscay when the Erika spilled 10 million litres of oil off the coast of Brittany.

Comparisons

Mr Rickaby said there were many differences between the incident off Spain and the Sea Empress.

He said: "The oils are different.

"This one is not dispersing whereas the oil on Sea Empress did.

"The Prestige is further off the coast whereas Sea Empress was closer in.

"The Prestige has broken up but there was the continual problem of getting the oil off the Sea Empress in the bad weather.

"The incident in Spain will be environmentally more significant."