THE Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff has won the contract to repair the oil tanker the Sea Empress, which spilled over 70,000 tonnes of oil off the Welsh coastline last month after running aground at the entrance to the Milford Haven oil refinery.

A spokesman for Harland and Wolff declined to disclose the value of the contract, but said that repairs to the ship would take at least four weeks.

"Its owners and underwriters will inspect it," he said, "and decide on what action they want to take. But until it's here in dry dock, we won't know what is likely to be involved."

The 147,000 tonne Sea Empress, which is owned by the Norwegian company Seatankers, and managed by the Glasgow based Acomarit, is expected to arrive in Belfast Lough tomorrow, and will have to be "dry cleaned" before repair work can be carried out. The vessel lost half its cargo when it ran aground on rocks at the entrance to the harbour at Milford Haven, causing widespread pollution of the Pembrokeshire coastline, and the deaths of thousands of sea birds.