Japanese ship locates sunken tanker

ILOILO CITY — A Japanese survey ship located yesterday the wreckage of Solar I, three weeks after it went down and caused the massive oil spill that affected Guimaras and threatened the coastlines of nearby provinces in central Visayas.

The Shinsei Maru arrived here Wednesday night and at first light sailed to Guimaras where the sunken Solar I lies deep on the seabed with nearly half a million gallons of oil still on board.

The Japanese vessel conducted a sonar sweep of the area where a vessel earlier commissioned by the National Mapping and Resources Information Authority (NAMRIA) established the tanker’s position at a depth of 640 meters, and about 13.3 nautical miles (24 kilometers) south of Lusaran Point in Guimaras, five kilometers eastward from the geographic coordinates where the oil tanker was initially reported to have sank on Aug. 11.

"They confirmed that the ship is indeed located there," Coast Guard commandant Vice Admiral Arthur Gosingan told a news conference here.

"The ship is in upright position, but is listing to the starboard (right) side. It has a small crack on its right side," he said.

Gosingan said a remote-controlled submersible would also be deployed to check on the condition of the ill-fated tanker and to determine how it could be raised or its cargo siphoned off.

"The most important thing right now is that we have located the ship, the remote-operated vehicle has identified the Solar I, its position and it is upright on the seabed," Gosingan said.

"We expect the cleanup to take more than six months," he added.

The Japanese salvage ship deployed its submersible twice to take footage of the tanker, according to Gosingan.

On its second dive in the afternoon, the submersible Hakuyo noticed a small crack on the midsection of the ship.

"However, the oil leaking out into the sea seeps out apparently through the air vent," Gosingan said.

"So that explains why we only see thin oil sheens in the surface," he said.

Gosingan said it was "really hard to say" how much oil remains in the ship.

The 91-kilogram Hakuyo, owned by the Fukada Salvage and Marine Works Co. Ltd., could go as deep as 2,000 meters. It is equipped with two video cameras and one still camera.

The firm was contracted by Petron Corp. to survey the location of the sunken oil tanker on the possibility that it could be refloated.

Gosingan said plans to refloat the sunken tanker might be premature.

He said another option being looked into is to siphon off the remaining bunker oil from the sunken ship. "That would come later," Gosingan said.

He said the Shinsei Maru will conduct further underwater surveys to check whether the remaining oil inside the hull is leaking, and experts on the ship will come up with recommendations on how to proceed with the cleanup.

Three options

Based on the findings, the Coast Guard will decide whether to refloat the tanker or siphon off its contents to prevent a further spill. A third, more costly option is to bury the entire ship in sand.

"The condition and position of the tanker seems favorable to us. It is an advantage for us because the vessel is still intact," Gosingan stressed.

Petron spokesman Carlos Tan, for his part, said the oil firm and its personnel will not leave the area until all the affected areas had been rehabilitated.

"Petron is cleaning some 200 kilometers of shoreline, and we estimate to finish all between 45 and 60 days," Tan said.

He clarified that the 697-ton Shinsei Maru is a survey ship, not a salvage ship as earlier reported.

"It will not be the one to re-float the tanker. You need to have cranes, which the Shinsei has none on board," Tan explained.

Apart from the Japanese ship, marine experts and biologists from the United States, France and Australia as well as environmental groups were in the area.

Once the Shinsei is done with the surveying, it will steam back to port and turn over its findings to the experts.

In turn, the two Japanese and one British experts will recommend what to do with the sunken ship.

During the news conference, Tan added the last option might be to entomb the tanker in a solid mass of cement to prevent further leakage of its contents.

The Solar I, owned by Sunshine Maritime Development Corp., sank in high seas on Aug. 11 carrying some 500,000 gallons of bunker oil.

About 50,000 gallons has leaked so far, damaging fertile fishing grounds, white sandy beaches and hundreds of kilometers of shoreline. Two of the ship’s crew remain missing.

Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes earlier said the tanker was about 700 meters (2,296 feet) under the sea. Officials estimate the tanker has spilled about 350,000 liters of oil so far.

Reyes said the detailed seabed survey conducted by the BRP Hydrographer Ventura revealed the sunken vessel was detected approximately measuring 73 meters long with breadth of 15 meters at one end and 11 meters at mid-section.

"The measurement indicates that the vessel may be lying on its side, with the wider end being the bridge (aft) portion while the other end (bow) may be partially submerged in sediment," Reyes said.

"This information had been relayed to the crew of the

Japanese vessel, which will utilize sophisticated gadgets in conducting its own search of the sunken tanker," he said.

Marine biologists had warned that unchecked damage from the oil spill could potentially rival the impact of the Exxon Valdez on the Alaskan shoreline when it floundered off its coast in 1989.

Not letting go

Amid the feverish efforts to contain the oil spill, authorities, are also focusing on the criminal aspect of the incident, on the liability of Petron and the owners of the sunken tanker over the ecological disaster.

President Arroyo has ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to head an investigation to determine the liability of Petron and the ship owners.

The Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI), on the other hand, is expected to release in the next few days its initial findings on the oil spill, the country’s worst environmental disaster.

Congress also took the initiative to conduct an inquiry over the incident.

"I will not stop until the culprits in this tragic event pay dearly for what they did," President Arroyo said in a speech Thursday.

"As for the victims, I will see to it that they get the attention they deserve," she said.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the oil spill will be treated as a national calamity "especially in mustering all the necessary resources for the immediate cleanup and containment of the oil spill, and the full protection of our pristine natural resources and the safety and livelihood of our people in the area."

The President pressed anew Petron and Sunshine Maritime to help in the cleanup and rehabilitation of the affected areas in Guimaras.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar Calderon, meanwhile, ordered the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) provide legal and investigative assistance to Task Force Guimaras in overseeing the clean up and rehabilitation of the island province.

Calderon directed the CIDG to send investigators to Guimaras, Iloilo, and Negros Occidental to document complaints from residents who had reportedly suffered injuries and incurred damage to property as a result of the oil spill.

Calderon also tasked Western Visayas police director Chief Superintendent Geary Barias to monitor market activities against hoarding.

"The oil spill is already a disaster of unimaginable scale, we do not want the people in affected areas to become victims of unscrupulous merchants who might take advantage of the prevailing situation by hiking prices of basic commodities and hoarding essential goods," Calderon said.

The Maritime Industry Authority (Marina), on the other hand, said it has adopted a policy to impose the double hull requirement for local fuel tankers.

Marina administrator Vicente Suazo Jr., said they have adopted the proposal of President Arroyo for double hull requirement to prevent another ecological incident such as the sinking of Solar I.

Suazo said Marina is now finalizing the new policy which is set to be approved and issued by the agency’s board next week for implementation.

Suazo clarified the new policy is in compliance with the order imposed by International Maritime Organization (IMO) requiring oil tankers operating in international waters to be double hulled by April 2008. — With Edu Punay, Katherine Adraneda, Paolo Romero, AFP, AP