Irish authorities are monitoring a huge oil spill – the largest in the waters around Ireland in a decade – that is drifting toward the Irish coast.

The Irish Marine Department said the oil slick was discovered close to where a Russian aircraft carrier was refuelling in the Celtic Sea between western Britain and southern Ireland.

The department said yesterday it was too early to predict how much of the spill, thought to be about 500 tonnes (3,750 barrels), will come ashore. The oil slick is about three miles (4.8km) long and three miles wide.

Molly Walsh, a spokeswoman for the environmental group Friends of the Earth, said the spill could seriously damage marine life.

Irish authorities learned about the spill on Saturday through surveillance carried out by the European Maritime Safety Agency in Lisbon, Portugal. Irish military aircraft flew over the area and saw the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, a Russian oil tanker and a Russian oceangoing tug near the slick.

Russia's chief of general staff, General Nikolai Marakov, confirmed that a Russian aircraft carrier had refuelled in the area but denied there had been any problems.

"We have no reason to think that anything went wrong during refuelling," he told reporters.

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Ireland's Department of Transport said it expects the slick to reach the southern coast of Ireland in about 16 days. Some of the oil is expected to evaporate and most of the rest will likely develop into tar balls – small, sticky patches of oil that often wash ashore.



The Press Association said a Russian destroyer, a British destroyer, an Irish naval vessel and a Russian aircraft carrier are at the site of the spill off the west coast of Ireland.

An Irish vessel set off Tuesday evening to assess whether the oil can be mechanically cleaned up at sea, to limit the damage to coastline.

The Irish government has asked the Russian embassy in Dublin to hand over samples of the oils carried on board the Russian vehicles.

Earlier in the day, a Russian Navy spokesman said there had been no problems with the Russian ships. "There have been no accidents on Russian ships linked to broken pipes or burst fuel tanks, nor has there been any deliberate dumping of fuel into the sea," Captain Igor Dygalo said in a statement carried by Russian news wires.

John Lucey, a biologist with Ireland's Environmental Protection Agency, said it was the biggest oil spill in the waters around Ireland in the past 10 years. In 1999, the oil tanker Sea Empress ran aground in south-west Wales, spilling 72,000 tonnes of oil.