At the end of the afternoon while loading fuel oil onto a docked ship within a portside hydrocarbon depot, a fuel oil spill occurred in the retention pit. The pit overflowed and 14 tonnes of product then flowed into the basin. Fire-fighters installed a floating boom to contain fuel oil dispersion at the surface, as weather conditions were particularly unfavourable (wind and rain). The marina was also closed by a dam. A firm specialised in industrial pumping cleaned the dock’s loading station and pumped fuel oil at the basin surface. In total, over 1100 m of dam and 220 m of absorbent sand bags were deployed. Moreover, 5 lorries ran simultaneously to transport the recovered products, from Sunday until the following Tuesday. The origin of this pollution was a tank bleed valve left open at the retention pit. Subsequent to this incident, the port authority reviewed its procedures for controlling commercial operations.