Salvagers race to pump oil off wreck
Source: Agencies |
October 15, 2011, Saturday
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Print Edition
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SALVAGE teams raced yesterday to resume pumping oil from a stricken container ship that has almost broken in two off the New Zealand coast as businesses started to count the cost of the country's worst environmental disaster in decades.
The Liberian-flagged Rena has been stuck for nine days on a reef 22 kilometers off Tauranga on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, spilling about 300 tons of fuel and some of its hundreds of containers into the sea.
Authorities said the 236-meter ship was in a precarious position as salvage teams prepared to cut holes in the stern to try to access tanks holding another 1,000 or more tons of fuel.
Maritime New Zealand spokesman Andrew Berry said: "What is holding the vessel together at the moment is the fact she is lying on the reef and some internal structures, companionways, ducting and the like inside the vessel."
The salvage teams are installing equipment and level platforms on the aft section of the 47,230-ton ship, which is listing at up to 25 degrees.
Matthew Watson, of the Svitzer salvage company, said: "There is some hope they might be able to start pumping oil tomorrow, but we cannot pin timeframes on things. That ship is very, very dangerous."
He said oil leaks from the ship have slowed and there was a "reasonable level of confidence" that the stern tanks are intact and would hold.
Weather and sea conditions were favorable, but winds are expected to strengthen and may force the salvage workers off the ship, which has lost 88 of its 1,360 containers.
Oil has washed up along 60km of coastline, which is popular with surfers and fishermen. An estimated 1,000 white-suited workers, including soldiers, wildlife experts and residents, were on the beaches clearing clumps of fuel oil and cargo wreckage. More than 220 tons have so far been cleared.
Residents said the beaches were looking cleaner as the winds were now blowing oil out to sea, allowing clean-up teams to make progress.
Authorities said more than 3,000 people had volunteered to help clean up the coast and teams were being trained to go where needed.
The Liberian-flagged Rena has been stuck for nine days on a reef 22 kilometers off Tauranga on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, spilling about 300 tons of fuel and some of its hundreds of containers into the sea.
Authorities said the 236-meter ship was in a precarious position as salvage teams prepared to cut holes in the stern to try to access tanks holding another 1,000 or more tons of fuel.
Maritime New Zealand spokesman Andrew Berry said: "What is holding the vessel together at the moment is the fact she is lying on the reef and some internal structures, companionways, ducting and the like inside the vessel."
The salvage teams are installing equipment and level platforms on the aft section of the 47,230-ton ship, which is listing at up to 25 degrees.
Matthew Watson, of the Svitzer salvage company, said: "There is some hope they might be able to start pumping oil tomorrow, but we cannot pin timeframes on things. That ship is very, very dangerous."
He said oil leaks from the ship have slowed and there was a "reasonable level of confidence" that the stern tanks are intact and would hold.
Weather and sea conditions were favorable, but winds are expected to strengthen and may force the salvage workers off the ship, which has lost 88 of its 1,360 containers.
Oil has washed up along 60km of coastline, which is popular with surfers and fishermen. An estimated 1,000 white-suited workers, including soldiers, wildlife experts and residents, were on the beaches clearing clumps of fuel oil and cargo wreckage. More than 220 tons have so far been cleared.
Residents said the beaches were looking cleaner as the winds were now blowing oil out to sea, allowing clean-up teams to make progress.
Authorities said more than 3,000 people had volunteered to help clean up the coast and teams were being trained to go where needed.
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