Nearly four months since motor tanker (MT) Princess Empress sank and triggered a massive oil spill off Oriental Mindoro, the removal of oil from its cargoes has finally been completed, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) announced on Saturday, June 17, although monitoring is still being conducted due to the risk of a new leak from the vessel’s fuel pipes.
M/T Princess Empress (Courtesy of Philippine Coast Guard)
Rear Adm. Armando Balilo, PCG spokesperson, said all eight cargo tanks containing approximately 800,000 liters of industrial fuel oil when MT Princess Empress sank 400 meters deep at the bottom of the sea in Naujan town on Feb. 28 “were now empty.”
“Based on the ROV [remotely operated vehicle] live videos, all eight cargo oil tanks were now empty, and the only remaining observations were oil drips from the cargo piping line,” Balilo said on Saturday, June 17.
“These pipes are small and the remaining oil is very minimal. In case there are sudden changes in the condition of the sea that might result to small leaks, we are ready to respond. What’s important right now is that the cargo tanks have already been cleared,” he added.
***M/T Princess Empress (Courtesy of Philippine Coast Guard)***
The Malayan Towage and Salvage Corp. (MSTC), the salvage company that led the oil removal operations, showed to officials of the PCG – headed by Marine Environmental Protection commander Vice Admiral Robert Patrimonio and Incident Management Team commander Commodore Geronimo Tuvilla – all the eight cargo oil tanks and the ship’s operational tank to prove that they no longer have traces of oil during an inspection on Friday.
The PCG officials were accompanied by representatives from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Office of the Civil Defense (OCD), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), and local government of Oriental Mindoro.
Diving support vessel (DSV) Fire Opal, a Liberian-flagged vessel, spearheaded the oil removal operations which started last May 29.
***DSV Fire Opal (Courtesy of Philippine Coast Guard)***
“Following the completion of DSV Fire Opal's operations, MTSC said two of their tugboats would continue to monitor and conduct containment operations for oil that may leak from the fuel pipes of MT Princess Empress,” Balilo noted.
The sinking of M/T Princess Empress has affected 42,487 families or 200,244 individuals in 262 barangays in Calabarzon (Region 4A), Mimaropa (Region 4B), and Western Visayas (Region 6).
The oil spill that resulted from the incident spread from Oriental Mindoro to Batangas, Palawan, and Antique which resulted to agricultural loss amounting to P4.9 billion, data from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) showed.
Meanwhile, a total of P693 million worth of assistance has been provided to affected residents.