Petron officials say firm complies with rules on chartering oil vessels

Petron officials recently disclosed that it complied with marine regulations because it has been chartering double hull, double bottom ships for transporting its oil cargo, under its shipping alliance project, even before the M/T Solar I vessel oil spill in Guimaras.

The oil firm was the first in the country that chartered such kind of vessel in compliance with the requirement of the International Monitoring Organization, said Steve del Mar, industrial marketing coordinator of Petron-VisMin, in the recent 888 News Forum at Parklane Hotel in Cebu City.

A hull is the body or frame of a ship or boat. A double hull is a design involving two complete layers of watertight surface from the bottom to the sides of the ship-the outer layer, which is the normal hull, and a second inner layer, which forms a redundant barrier in case the outer hull is damaged and leaked.

The space in between the two hull layers is often used as storage tanks for fuel or ballast water.

Double hulls are a more extensive safety measure than double bottoms, which have two hull layers only in the bottom of the ship and not the sides.

Double bottom is a ship hull design of two complete layers of watertight hull surface at the bottom of the ship-the outer layer or normal hull, and an inner layer to serve as a redundant barrier to seawater in case the outer part is damaged and leaked.

For these reasons, double hulls or double bottoms have been required in all passenger ships for decades as part of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, or MARPOL Convention, and part of the Safety Of Life At Sea, or SOLAS Convention.

Most oil firms in the country have been reportedly chartering single hull cargo vessels because these have cheaper rates than those double hull, double bottom vessels.

The IMO regulation, however, compels oil companies with strict compliance of chartering only double hull, double bottom vessels by April 2008.

The M/T Solar I oil tanker, which sunk in Panay Gulf off the coast of Guimaras last August 11, was a single but a double hull vessel, said the Petron official.

It was carrying 2.19 million liters of fuel oil and, when it sunk 640 meters deep, about 800,000 liters of oil leaked to cause the damaging spill in the area, said Carlos Tan, Petron's health, safety and environment manager.

Tan said the sunken vessel is still intact and speculated that between 1.2 million and 1.4 million liters of oil are still inside it. "An alarming problem of Petron is what to do with it," he said.

In the case of the spill, about 1,391 metric tons of oil debris have been collected so far from 40 barangays in four towns in Guimaras and another 16 metric tons from two towns in Iloilo.

Del Mar said arrangements were already finalized for the setting up of a waste processing facility in Lugait, Misamis Oriental to dispose the collected debris. - Gregg M. Rubio/RAE