Over a million liters of oily waste siphoned off sunken tanker

THE salvage company contracted by the owner of the tanker Terranova has siphoned off over a million liters of oily waste from the sunken vessel, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) reported yesterday.

Citing information as of 8 p.m. Saturday, the PCG said a total of 129,292 liters of oil waste has been collected by Harbor Star from the storage tanks of the vessel.

MTKR Terranova was on its way to deliver 1.4 liters of industrial fuel oil to Iloilo, from Bataan, last July 25 when it was battered by huge waves, causing the vessel to sink off Limay town in Bataan.

Some of the oil has spilled, affecting Bataan and Cavite. Twenty cities and municipalities were placed under a state of calamity due to the oil spill.

Authorities have been recovering oily waste at the storage tanks because authorities have to introduce seawater under their siphoning strategy to ensure the stability of the vessel.

The collection of the 129,292 liters of oily waste on Saturday brought to 1,032,557.58 liters the total of oily waste that has been recovered since the start of the siphoning operation last August 19.

It is the second-highest volume of oily waste so far recovered in one day. The highest was recorded on August 28 when 232,187 liters of oily waste were collected.

“Harbor Star deployed additional pumps and said that the rate of oily waste flow during the 31 August 2024 operation was 18,575 per hour,” the PCG said.

Coast Guard Bataan commander Lt. Cmdr. Michael John Encina earlier said they are hoping the salvor would be able to meet its September 4 target to collect all the fuel inside MTKR Terranova.

Once all the oil are collected, the vessel will be refloated.