Mv Saint Thomas Aquinas, Siphoning of fuel to start today

CEBU, Philippines - The siphoning of the remaining oil from the sunken MV Saint Thomas Aquinas is expected to start today as the company commissioned by 2GO Group has reportedly completed their drilling and preparatory process.

Yesterday, officials of 2GO group and members of the media visited Lauis Ledge in Talisay City where the tugboat, Trabajador 1, was already in place.

The tugboat is owned by Malayan Towage and Salvage Corporation, the company hired by 2GO Group to further stop the oil spill from the ill-fated passenger vessel which has been releasing oil for more than two weeks now.

Noel Kimmayong of Malayan Towage said they would need to sip out the remaining oil in all 11 tanks of the ship.

He said they are targeting for the process to be finished within 12 days but would depend on the remaining oil left in the vessel.

Kimmayong explained that they would have a hard time to determine the amount of oil remaining in the tanks of the ship since it has released oil in the past weeks. The MV Saint Thomas Aquinas reportedly had around 120,000 liters of lube oil, diesel oil and fuel oil.

After the drilling, Kimmayong said they would siphon all the remaining oil then quantify how much they can extract from each tank.          

Further, Kimmayong said they have another vessel in standby in case another oil spill will take place in the middle of the siphoning.

But this is highly unlikely, according to the company representative, since there is only minimal oil left in the vessel.

Meanwhile, Lt. General Roy Deveraturda, commander of the military's Central Command (Centcom), said dive teams are still intact if there is a necessity to dive.

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the Philippine Navy (PN) have earlier said that the retrieval operations have not been halted. Although it was postponed when the tugboat of Malayan towage arrived, the officials of PCG and PN have said that retrieval operations may still continue but would also depend on the advice of the technical divers.

Yesterday, Deveraturda said lesser bodies are being retrieved during diving operations compared to the first few days. "This will indicate to everybody that there will be activities that will be drawing down."

But he said that the organization, the personnel and the equipments are still present which means they can dive when needed.

Deveraturda confirmed yesterday that all the divers are physically fit to continue diving operations, based on the recent medical check-up they underwent.

"Pwede pa at kaya pa nila," Deveraturda added. – (FREEMAN)