Guimaras oil recovery operation second in history
Recovery operations for the remaining oil inside the compartments of sunken tanker MT Solar 1 off the waters of Guimaras will already start as scheduled this Wednesday, March 14.
Allied Shield, the recovery vessel of Italy-based Sonsub Limited, has already arrived in Bacolod City last Saturday.
Sonsub was contracted by the Protection and Indemnity (P&I) Club, insurer of the Solar 1 to retrieve any remaining oil on the ill-fated vessel presently lying under 640 meters of water.
The vessel is currently berthed at the Bacolod reclamation port while the working documents of the crew are being processed with the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Immigration.
Presidential Assistant for Western Visayas Rafael Coscolluela, chair of the Task Foce Solar 1 Oil Spill, said the management of Sonsub Limited, an Italian firm specializing in deepwater operations, chose to dock at BREDCO in Bacolod City because it is closer to the site of the sunken vessel.
The recovery operation, which is expected to last for 20 days, will be using two remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) warned that the one-kilometer exclusion zone from the ground zero would be enforced to avoid possible problems that may arise while the operation is going on.
PCG has also mapped out its other contingency measure in addition to the enforcement of an exclusion zone to include deployment of response tugboats, spill booms and two coastal vessels to provide security.
Tugboats are equipped with oil dispersants, oil skimmers for the mechanical recovery of oil.
Likewise, an aircraft with an airborne dispersant capability will be deployed to do a continuous monitoring.
The PCG estimated that around 800,000 to 1 million liters of bunker fuel remained embedded at the tanker from the more than two million liters that should have been transported to Zamboanga.
The oil recovery operations for Solar 1 is considered the second in history. Sonsub also took charge in the retrieval of 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.
"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 done before," Sonsub Project Director Robin Galleti said.
During the operation, the ROVs will assist in drilling two holes in each tank. Water will be allowed to flow into one hole to displace any remaining oil which would flow from the second hole. Both holes will have fail-safe valves. A shuttle container will be placed on top of the valve to capture the oil. The container will then be brought to 30 meters under the surface where submersible pumps will transfer the oil to ISO tanks on the Allied Shield.
The cost of operation is estimated to reach US$ 6 million.
(Sources from PNA and Ligtas Guimaras website)