MANILA, Philippines — At least 903,000 liters out of the 1.4 million liters of oil have been siphoned out of the MTKR Terranova, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said on Friday, August 30.
The MTKR Terranova sank in Bataan waters on July 25 after the onslaught of Super Typhoon “Carina” and the southwest monsoon.The PCG has been overseeing efforts to remove the oil from the sunken oil tanker, but the actual siphoning is up to a contracted salvor.
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“The contracted salvor, Harbor Star, reported over 903,000 liters of collected oily waste from 19 to 29 August 2024,” the PCG said in a statement on Friday.
Here is the volume of oil that the Harbor Star has been able to siphon per day:
- August 19 - 2,350 liters
- August 20 - 36,100 liters
- August 21 - 42,026 liters
- August 22 - 81,136 liters
- August 23 - 17,103 liters
- August 24 - 121,724 liters
- August 25 - 101,603 liters
- August 26 - 104,202 liters
- August 27 - 67,871 liters
- August 28 - 232,187 liters
- August 29 - 97, 011.58 liters
However, the PCG said that siphoning operations were temporarily halted to change tanks. It added that the average rate of oily waste flow is 12,437 liters per hour.
Meanwhile, there are two other vessels that have leaked fuel into Bataan waters: the MTKR Jason Bradley and the MV Mirola Uno.
Oil from the MTRK Terranova is believed to have reached the shores of Cavite, Batangas, Metro Manila and more. Several towns have already declared a state of calamity and imposed fishing bans due to the oil spill.