Maritime services company Smit is on standby to pump oil from the capsized Italian cruise liner Costa Concordia once the search for missing people has been completed, news agency Reuters quoted the Dutch firm as saying on Sunday.

So far six bodies have been recovered from the liner, which was carrying more than 4,000 people when it capsized on Friday evening.
Smit said it has been asked by the ship’s owner and insurer to pump out oil if it starts to leak, a spokesman for Dutch dredging group Boskalis Westminster, which owns Smit, told Reuters.
Salvage
Meanwhile, the Telegraaf says Smit is in with a strong chance of winning the salvage operation for the 290-metre-long ship once that contract is awarded.
The paper points out Smit led the salvage of the Herald of Free Enterprise ferry which sank 25 years ago just outside the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, killing 193 passengers and crew.
Smit was also involved in lifting Russian nuclear submarine Kursk from the Barents Sea in 2001.