Melbourne (Platts)--6Apr2010/604 am EDT/1004 GMT

Heavy fuel oil aboard a Chinese-registered coal carrier that ran aground on Australia's protected Great Barrier Reef will be transferred to another vessel, Queensland state premier Anna Bligh said Tuesday.

"It has been resolved to transfer as much oil as possible from this vessel into another ship and that will be done with a boom in place around the vessel to prevent any spills," she told reporters in Brisbane, local media reported.

Whether the 65,000 mt of coal on board would also be transferred to another ship was still under consideration, she added.

Helicopter surveillance early Tuesday showed a thin oil sheen near the vessel measuring 600 m by 300 m and authorities were deciding whether to treat it with dispersants, Maritime Safety Queensland general manager Patrick Quirk said in a statement earlier Tuesday. Dispersants would not normally be used on such a thin film of oil, but are under consideration due to the protected local environment.

A preliminary report Tuesday had confirmed initial reports that the main engine room of the Shen Neng 1 was breached, the main engine damaged and the rudder seriously damaged, the agency said.

The bulk coal carrier ran aground on Douglas Shoal, about 70 km east of Great Keppel Island, on Saturday afternoon with 65,000 mt of coal and about 975 mt of heavy fuel oil on board.

The accident occurred within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, about 15 nautical miles from the nearest shipping channel. The vessel was reportedly traveling at full speed.

Bligh said Monday that the vessel was in a restricted zone that was "totally off limits" to shipping and the government would investigate why it was so far off course.

The carrier's Chinese owners, a subsidiary of Cosco Group, could be fined up to A$1 million ($920,000) and the captain handed a A$250,000 penalty over the incident, she said.

The amount of seaborne exports of coal and natural gas is set to surge in the coming decade as Queensland opens new resource developments to supply Asia's growing energy needs. The Great Barrier Reef covers 345,000 sq km along the state's coast.

--Wendy Wells, newsdesk@platts.com