US firm begins work on evacuation of oil from sunken ship

BHUBANESWAR: The US firm Resolve Marine Group [RMG] on Monday began exploring the process of salvaging oil from the Mongolian cargo ship, Black Rose, which got sunk in Bay of Bengal at Paradip on September 9 last.

A seven member team of the RMG, which was awarded a contract for evacuation of oil from the sunken ship, visited the mishap site along with officials of Paradip Port Trust [PPT] to make a survey of the wreckage to locate the oil tank of the capsized vessel, PPT sources said.

���The team has made a survey of the wreckage. The oil stored in three chambers of the sunken ship will be drained out under the active supervision of the US firm team. PPT will provide divers and marine personnel for the operation���, deputy chairman of PPT, Biplav Kumar said.

The furnace oil stored in the chambers- nearly 945 tons- was in a semi-solid condition and could be pumped out only after heating it to turn in liquid state.

PPT has already received 75 per cent of equipments from the US firm to be needed for removing the oil and the rest are expected to reach here shortly.

The US firm, which has been chosen for oil retrieval work from among four companies through a global tender, has committed to complete the operation in 45 days. The operation involved an expenditure of Rs 17.5 crore.

Earlier, PPT had engaged Visakhapatnam-based J Enterprises and Divers to carry out plugging of oil tanks and the firm has completed its work.