Oil extraction from sunken tanker to start late February

January 31st, 2007 by Site Administrator

A SINGAPORE-BASED company is set to start draining off the remaining bunker fuel from a tanker that sank off Guimaras last August, presidential adviser for Western Visayas Rafael Coscolluela said Wednesday.

The Philippine Coast Guard is expected to grant a salvage permit this week to Sonsub Ltd., which is expected to start clean-up operations late February, Coscolluela said.

He said the operation to siphon off the oil still trapped in the MT Solar 1’s holds would take three weeks and would be completed by the middle of March. The operation will cost between $8 million and $10 million.

The Philippine Coast Guard will set the guidelines for the salvaging contractor, Coscolluela said.

The MT Solar 1 was carrying 2.1 million tons of bunker fuel when it sank in Guimaras Strait on August 11. About 20 percent of the fuel is believed to have been released into the water, leaving 1.6 million tons still at the bottom of the sea, Coscolluela said.

But he said that some Coast Guard officials think there was no more oil left in the tanker.

“There is a bet going around as too how much oil is actually remaining,” he said.

Starting as a company renting out remotely operated vehicles in the early 1980s, Sonsub has become a leading provider of subsea construction services and remote technologies, according to information posted on its website www.sonsub.com. (Carla Gomez. Philippine Daily Inquirer, January 31, 2007)