Over 300,000 liters of oil siphoned from Terra Nova

MANILA, Philippines — A month after the motor tanker Terra Nova sank in the waters of Bataan, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said it is taking the “slow but sure” approach in recovering 1.4 million liters of industrial fuel oil (IFO) cargo.

In an update, the PCG said that from Aug. 19 to 24, the salvor Harbor Star has collected a total of 300,438 liters of oily waste from the MTKR Terra Nova that sank last July 25 in Limay, Bataan.

During the six-day period, the biggest collection was last Aug. 24 with 121,724 liters or having an oily waste flow rate of 13,500 liters per hour.

However, even with the installation of two booster pumps to increase siphoning capacity, this is still far from the initial announced target of collecting 200,000 liters of oily waste a day that was projected.

The PCG initially planned on completing the siphoning of the 1.4 million liters of IFO in two weeks but they might extend the deadline to three weeks since the average daily collection of oily waste material is below target, according to PCG Bataan station commander Michael John Encina.

“We would not be rushing the salvor Harbor Star in meeting their target of 200,000 liters per day because the integrity of the ship might be compromised if we would be removing the oil too fast or simultaneously remove the IFO from the eight cargo oil tanks (COTs),” Encina said.

He explained that as they siphon the IFO from the tanker, they would have to replace the oil with seawater with the same speed. They are avoiding creating a vacuum inside the tanks because this might add buoyancy and disrupt the stability of the tanker.

“What we are after here is not the duration (of completing the siphoning), the primary consideration here is the safety, that even if we continue with the siphoning underwater there would be no oil spill,” Encina said.