There was no indication that industrial fuel oil stored in a tanker that sank in stormy weather in Manila Bay had started to leak, the Philippine Coast Guard said yesterday, as it planned to siphon off the highly toxic shipment to prevent a spill.
The MT Terra Nova had left Bataan province en route to the central province of Iloilo with about 1.4 million liters of industrial fuel oil stored in watertight tanks when it got lashed by huge waves and took on water.
The crew struggled to steer the tanker back to port, but it sank shortly after midnight on Thursday.
Photo: AFP
The coast guard rescued 16 crewmembers, but one drowned, coast guard spokesperson Rear Admiral Armando Balilo said.
“We’re racing against time to siphon off the oil to avoid an environmental catastrophe,” Balilo told reporters, adding that the plans could be hampered if the weather turns bad.
An oil slick about 3.7km long near the rough seawaters where the tanker sank, about 6km off Limay town, came from the fuel tank that powered the tanker and not from its cargo, Balilo said.
The sunken tanker’s owner has contracted a private company to undertake the oil siphoning, which could take a week, he said.
Coast guard officials would get the detailed plan from the company to allow the coast guard to brace for contingencies during the delicate undersea operation, he said.
Three coast guard ships with personnel and equipment for oil spill containment have been deployed to the area where the tanker sank.
There have been days of monsoon rains, exacerbated by Typhoon Gaemi.
“There’s a big danger that Manila would be affected, its shorelines, if the fuel leaks because this happened within Manila Bay, Balilo said, ”We’re preparing for the worst.”
The 65m oil tanker is lying at a relatively shallow depth of 34m, based on an initial assessment.
Coast guard personnel took photographs of the sinking tanker, so they know the general area where it went down, but divers were waiting for better weather to try to reach the vessel for an inspection, the coast guard said.
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