Bhubaneswar, Sep 23 - A global tender will be floated to pump the stored oil out of a Mongolian ship that sank off Orissa's Paradip port Sep 9, but the process could take up to a month, port officials said Wednesday. A wildlife society is concerned that the delay could harm the breeding ground of Olive Ridley turtles.

'We have decided to float a global tender to pump out oil from the sunken ship. Since in India there are few companies having scientific expertise in pumping out oil from a sunken ship, we have decided to float the tender,' Paradip Port deputy chairman Biplav Kumar said Wednesday.

'We are following several legal and official procedures...the tendering process will take some days,' he said.

'It is a long process. It takes time. We will have to give some time for completing the work, which may take about 20-30 days,' Kumar told IANS.

The vessel, MV Black Rose, carrying about 25,000 tonnes of iron ore fines and 900 tonnes of oil, capsized in the Bay of Bengal, five km off the Paradip port. Kumar hoped that the oil removal would be completed within one and a half or two months' time.

'It will cost several crores. It is the responsibility of the ship owner but he declined. We also found the ship officials had forged the insurance document,' another port official said, declining to be named.

'We had no other option but to give the owner time to respond as it involves legal complicacies,' he added.

'Now we have to spend money and this requires government approval. Although the central government has assured us help, the state government has not assured anything yet,' he said.

The Wildlife Society of Orissa, however, accuses port authorities of inaction and says such a delay could be hazardous.

'We are concerned over the inaction,' Biswajit Mohanty, secretary of the society, told IANS.

The Paradip Port Trust has done nothing for the past two weeks except to keep a watch over the vessel and escort visiting officials to the ship wreck, Mohanty said.