Kochi, June 7 -- The work on extracting marine diesel and furnace oil from the fuel tanks of the sunken Liberia-flagged cargo vessel MSC ELSA 3 will begin on June 9, a senior shipping official said on Friday. The cargo vessel, on its way to Kochi port from the Vizhinjam International Seaport, had developed a 26-degree starboard list and subsequently sank around 14.5 nautical miles off the Kerala coast on the morning of May 25. While the 24 foreign crew members onboard were rescued in a joint operation by the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard (ICG), the incident triggered fears of an oil spill. A senior shipping official, who did not wish to be named, said a team of expert deep-sea diving personnel are slated to advance to the region where the ship sank on June 9 and begin operations on extracting the fuel. "The priority right now is to plug the leaks, if any, of the oil and diesel from the tanks and ensure that it does not spill into the sea. If it leaks, the oil will corrode, resulting in damage to the marine environment," the official said. "First, the leaks will be plugged and later the oil will be taken out. The fuel tanks are punctured and the oil extracted. It's a complicated process for which proper protocol has to be followed." According to a defence ministry statement after the vessel's capsizing, the ship had 84.44 metric tonnes of diesel and 367.1 metric tonnes of furnace oil in its tanks. The diving vessel to be used in the operation has already reached Kochi, the official said. "The deadline for removing the fuel and oil from the ship is July 3. We are confident we can do it," he said....