Actual recovery of oil from tanks on board the sunken MT Solar 1 off the coast of Guimaras is underway, Presidential Adviser for Western Visayas Rafael Coscolluela said yesterday.

The retrieval is being conducted by the crew of the Allied Shield, a vessel of Sonsub, an Italian firm specializing in deepwater operations, with the help of Remotely Operated Vehicles with robotic arms.

Solar 1 sank 9 kilometers south of Guimaras to a depth of about 2,100 meters carrying about 2,000 tons of oil owned by Petron in August last year.

Yesterday the Allied Shield was recovering oil from tank number five on the portside of Solar 1, Coscolluela said.

Oil has already been recovered from other tanks, Cosolluela was informed, at two days per tank.

After yesterday the Allied Shield will have six more tanks on board Solar 1 to retrieve oil from estimated to last 12 days barring any unusual incident , Coscolluela said.

Security ships have effectively warded off intruders from the recovery site, he added.*CPG

back to top