At least 125 liters of industrial fuel oil were extracted from motor tanker (MT) Princess Empress as dynamic support vessel (DSV) Fire Opal intensified its efforts to siphon the remaining oil from the sunken vessel, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) revealed Friday, June 2.
***DSV Fire Opal extracts the remaining fuel oil onboard the sunken MT Princess Empress in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro. (Photo courtesy of Philippine Coast Guard)***
Citing a report from the Incident Management Team-Oriental Mindoro (IMT-Ormin), the PCG said that Malayan Towage and Salvage Corp. (MTSC) started to open the cargo oil tanks (COTs) onboard MT Princess Empress using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).
A “catch can” was then deployed to the location of the sunken vessel 400 meters deep below the sea level to collect the remaining oil.
The PCG said that the catch can extracted approximately 50 liters of oil from a COT located at the first starboard of the vessel while another 75 liters were extracted from a COT at the first port.
The amount of black oil collected from two more tanks at the second starboard and second port is yet to be determined.
The PCG also noted that the hatch covers of the tanks located at the first starboard and first port “are open but no oil is coming out.” The tanks were subjected to continuous monitoring.
Meanwhile, the tanks located at the second starboard and port were observed to have “a few amounts of oil.”
To prevent the oil from further spilling, the PCG said that the MTSC temporarily closed the tanks while they checked other container oil tanks located at the third and fourth starboards and ports.
The siphoning operation started last May 29 and the PCG estimated that around 120,000 to 240,000 liters of oil remain onboard the MT Princess Empress.
The tanker sank in the vicinity waters of Naujan town on Feb. 28 while carrying 800,000 liters of industrial fuel oil. The oil spill that resulted from the catastrophe spread from Oriental Mindoro to the provinces of Antique, Batangas, and Palawan.