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An oil tanker which ran aground off the southern coast of Taiwan, could be left carrying around 39,000 litres of fuel oil until next week, according to local authorities.

As previously reported on Bunker Index, The Comoros-registered Colombo Queen went aground last Saturday approximately 50 metres off Pingtung's Jialeshuei coastal park as a result of strong winds and heavy seas caused by the approaching tropical storm Linfa.

Aung Win, captain of the Colombo Queen, said he had tried to steer the tanker away from the coastline but the winds were so strong that the vessel was blown towards land and the engine finally gave out.

According to the Pingtung County Environmental Affairs Bureau, work to begin removing the 39,000 litres of fuel oil onboard the vessel was suspended on Tuesday due to bad weather caused by the approaching tropical storm Nangka.

As a result, the company authorized by the bureau to begin pumping out the fuel oil from the grounded vessel began working instead to prevent further damage from being caused by the oncoming winds.

There were said to be no signs of fuel oil leakage from the vessel upon inspection.

County officials met earlier this week over fears that the grounded vessel could cause another environmental disaster following a fuel oil spill in January 2001, when the Greek-registered bulk carrier Amorgos ran aground off the coast of Pingtung's Kenting National Park, spilling around 1,150 tonnes of fuel oil into the open water.

As a result of the spill, three kilometres of coastline were left seriously polluted and the 60-hectare Lungkeng Ecological Preserve took several years to recover from the incident.