Nagashiki Shipping said in a statement that all of the oil that had been floating in the ocean had been retrieved from the nearly 1,000 tons that leaked from the Panamanian-flagged MV Wakashio.

Work was going smoothly to clear the oil along approximately 30 km (18.6 miles) of coastline and will likely be completed by January, it said.

On July 25, the vessel, chartered by Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd, landed on a reef in Mauritius and started leaking oil on Aug. 6.

In what some experts have called the Indian Ocean Island's worst ecological tragedy, the spilt oil spread over a wide area of endangered corals, impacting fish and other marine life.

Nagashiki Shipping also reported that the scheduled removal of the vessel's rear portion would start in late December and last for several months. As ordered by local authorities, the front section was scuttled in August.

Maritime Business World