PCG: Oil from sunken ship will just evaporate

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Authorities yesterday assured the Sa­rangani provincial government that the estimated 3,000 liters of oil that leaked out from a ship that sank during a collision with another vessel in Sarangani Bay last Aug. 9, will just evaporate and will not adversely affect the marine environment as feared.

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) issued this assessment after discovering that the cargo vessel M/V Bulk Carrier 1 was using automotive diesel oil when it sank last week after the collision with the bigger M/V HS Puccini.

The oil sheen was observed about 4.4 nautical miles off Maasim, Sarangani. Local officials fear that the oil would reach the shore.

Commander Roy Echeverria, acting chief of the PCG station here, however, told Sarangani officials in a briefing that there are no signs that the oil sheen may be moving toward the shore.

“Right now, containment is ongoing in the spill area,” Echeverria said. “We have enough equipment and dispersants to really combat this oil spill. Fortunately for us, the current is seaward so it is going out.”

Echeverria briefed Vice Gov. Steve Chiongbian Solon who heads the provincial government’s disaster risk reduction team, Maasim Mayor Jose Zamorro, environment officers and the province’s legal team.

PCG personnel sprayed dispersants last Thursday to contain the oil slick.

Echeverria said M/V Bulk Carrier 1 used a special oil or automotive diesel oil which is easier to clean than bunker fuel.

According to the sunken vessel’s second engineer, who was in charge of the fuel, there were two tanks of 3,000 liters each fitted with a “water tank integrity device.”

Echeverria said the M/V Bulk Carrier 1 was hit on the port or left side where one of the tanks was located. “So we can say that we are expecting here 3,000 liters of special oil,” he said.

He said the vessel went down between 400 and 500 fathoms, according to the maritime chart, thus the leaking oil gets thin as it goes upward to the surface of the water.

PCG personnel have been deployed in Maasim town to teach residents on basic shoreline protection in case the oil reaches land.

“We have salvors, they are well-equipped, with two tugs. We have the Coast Guard vessels, more than enough to guard that spill is contained,” Echeverria said.

“We don’t need to lay out the spill booms because we just do that in the recovery of oil,” he added.

Echeverria said the oil sheen being observed “will naturally just disperse and it will just evaporate.”

“I don’t think it will cause so much damage to our marine environment,” he said.

Despite this though, the PCG is still monitoring the spill area daily.

Solon, for his part, said the oil slick was “subsiding.” He, however, asked the PCG for documents on the accident.

Lawyer Arnel Zapatos, provincial legal counsel, said local officials were concerned because the vessel sank within the Sarangani Bay Protected Seascape.

However, Zapatos concurred with Echeverria that there was no cause of action because the oil spill did not hit land, although he said local officials would “continue monitoring what will happen next.”

The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, the Environmental Conservation and Protection Center, and the Environmental Management Bureau took water samples from the spill area, and reported that “the oil is hardly visible now.”