The Malta Maritime Authority is investigating a minor spill involving the Malta-flagged vessel Jimilta II in the Mississippi River, USA, last Sunday.

The Jimilta II had a fuel tank overflow during bunkering operations with consequent deck and minor minor pollution.

The Master immediately informed the owners, agents, P&I Club, the United States Coast Guard and the Flag State and acted immediately to initiate required procedures to avoid further river contamination spill from the deck spillage.

Upon examination of the incident, the Coast Guard's technical team concluded that the spillage was about 10 barrels on deck and about 5 barrels in the river and thus considered of minor impact.

The vessel was fined by the USCG and was released after clean-up operations were completed, the Maritime Authority said.