About 150,000 liters of oily waste remain onboard the sunken tanker MTKR Terranova as the siphoning operation has been temporarily suspended by the authorities due to Severe Tropical Storm (STS) “Enteng”.
National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) Chairperson Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said the draining of the remainder of 1.4 million liters of industrial fuel oil (IFO) onboard MTKR Terranova is already on the final stage.
“There’s just 150,000 liters of oily water remaining so we are about to wrap up already,” Teodoro, who is also the Department of National Defense (DND) secretary, said on Wednesday, Sept. 4.
The two-week deadline for the completion of the siphoning was on Sept. 3 but the operation had been suspended by the contracted salvor, Harbor Star Shipping Services Inc., since Sept. 2 due to strong current and heavy weather conditions caused by Enteng.
As of Sept. 1, a total of 1,254,889.58 liters of oily waste (IFO mixed with seawater) have already been collected by Harbor Star from Terranova.
Once the weather improves over the weekend, the salvor is expected to continue the siphoning to extricate the remaining oily waste from the tanker.
Then, salvage operations will follow to remove MTKR Terranova from the water.
“The ship, it will be refloated,” Teodoro said.
While the siphoning operation is suspended, Harbor Star transferred over 208,000 liters out of the target 410,000 liters of recovered oily waste to a designated treatment facility in Marilao, Bulacan as of 10:43 a.m. Wednesday.
MTKR Terranova sank on July 25 off Limay, Bataan amid the onslaught of Super Typhoon “Carina”. One crew member died while 16 others were rescued.