Oil spill contractor sets to refloat, salvage barge

CEBU, Philippines - Preparations are now underway to refloat and salvage National Power Corporation's Power Barge (PB) 103, which ran aground in Estancia, Iloilo at the height of typhoon Yolanda on Nov. 8.

In a press statement, private contractor Kuan Yu Global Technologies Inc. announced that it has successfully completed the extraction of all the bunker oil from the barge over the weekend.

"We've removed all the bunker oil from PB 103. There is no longer any danger of more oil seeping out. All the fuel inside the vessel has already been safely taken out," said Kuan Yu president Karl Ignatius Young. "We retrieved 175,782 liters of clean bunker oil from the barge's two tanks. We also pulled out another 426,200 liters of contaminated bunker oil."

The recovered oil has been securely transferred to the MT Obama, which is now en route to La Paz in Iloilo City where it will then convey the oil to another vessel, Power Barge 101.

Kuan Yu was hired by state-run Power Sector Asset and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), owner of PB 103, to clean up the leak and salvage the vessel. Around 169 tons of oil debris has been collected during the clean-up.

Meanwhile, Commodore Athelo Ybañez, commander of the Philippine Coast Guard- Western Visayas, confirmed the completion of the clean-up operation last Saturday but oil-water mixture was seen inside the barge.

A sample from the remaining mixture was already taken to ascertain the volume of bunker fuel residue, if any, inside the barge. — (FREEMAN)