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  Yahoo News 15 Mar 07
Oil from sunken Philippines tanker siphoned off

An Italian marine engineering company has begun to siphon fuel from a tanker that sank in the Philippines seven months ago causing a devastating oil spill, officials said Thursday.

The Solar 1 lies 640 metres (2,100 feet) underwater off the island of Guimaras after being holed in rough seas in August while transporting 2,000 tons of bunker fuel. Local oil refiner Petron Corp., which owns the cargo, said Sonsub, a deepwater operations company, has been contracted by the insurers of the tanker to remove the cargo using the Allied Shield, a specialist oil recovery ship. The task was expected to last 20 days and cost six million dollars.

"This is only the second time in history that such a deep sea oil retrieval operation will be undertaken," it said in a statement. "Sonsub successfully retrieved 13,500 tons of crude oil without spillage from the tanker Prestige which sank in 10,000 feet of water 240 kilometers from the coast of Spain (in 2002)."

Allied Shield is using global positioning satellites and thrusters along its sides to allow it to stay directly above Solar 1 at all times. Two remotely-operated vehicles will be deployed underwater to drill holes in the sunken vessel's cargo tanks, one hole to let seawater push the oil to the top and the second to let the oil out in an operation monitored by robotic cameras. Valves will be installed to control the flow of oil, which will be transferred first onto the Allied Shield and then into a tanker barge.

"The extraction of oil from Solar 1 will be relatively easier than the Prestige which sank in much harsher environmental conditions. Additionally, everything that will be done in this oil recovery project has been already done before," said Sonsub director Robin Galleti.

"We will be operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week to hasten the recovery of any trapped oil in Solar 1," he added.

Galleti said tugboats equipped with skimmers and floating booms, and a plane loaded with dispersant, would be deployed during the retrieval operation in case of any spillage.

The coastguard has set up a one-kilometre (0.6-mile) exclusion zone around the area to divert shipping traffic. "The retrieval of oil from Solar 1 will finally end all speculation whether there is still oil on the vessel and more importantly, ease the apprehension of people from the Visayas (central Philippine islands)," said Petron chairman Nicasio Alcantara.

The 998-ton Solar 1 leaked an unknown volume of cargo when it sunk, resulting in the Philippines' worst-ever oil spill that destroyed a marine reserve, ruined fishing grounds and covered coastlines with black sludge.

Two crew members are still missing, presumed dead, from the accident which a maritime inquiry blamed on overloading and inadequate training of the ship's captain.
links
Philippines oil-spill tanker 'may have sunk during cargo heist'
By Bruce Lieberman Yahoo News 18 Sep 06

Philippines oil slick spares 4,700 hectares of corals
Underwatertimes 10 Sep 06

Philippines considers oil-eating microbes to tackle oil spill
Yahoo News 4 Sep 06

Philippines oil spill raises spectre of major disaster
by Cecil Morella Yahoo News 30 Aug 06

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