Thursday, October 19, 2006 Siphoning of oil starts December
THE government's Task Force Guimaras on Wednesday said the siphoning of the remaining oil from the sunken Solar 1 off Guimaras may start in December or January when there are no scheduled typhoons to hit the country during that period.
In a press conference, task force chief and Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz said it was not favorable to siphon off the oil from the motor tanker this month or next month because six typhoons are scheduled to hit the country.
Cruz was quoting from a forecast of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Service Administration (Pagsa), which he said, has been very effective in the prediction of weather disturbances that are due to hit the Philippines.
He said experts need at least 30 to 45 days to complete the siphoning process. Authorities could not say how much oil is remaining in the motor tanker, which carried two million liters of oil before it sank last August 11 in bad weather.
Cruz also said pipes that may be installed for the siphoning may be affected by a typhoon. “If you lay many pipes under the water and a typhoon hits, this may cause another problem,” the official also said.
He said he was 99.9 percent sure that the cost of the siphoning would be shouldered by the International Oil Pollution Compensation (IOPC) on October 23.
An IOPC representative recommended to the IOPC executive last month the shouldering of the cost of siphoning.
Government officials earlier said the Philippine Government would be forced to shoulder the siphoning cost if the IOPC refuses to shoulder the expenses.
They estimated the siphoning process to cost between US$8 million to $10 million.
“I was told that there approval on October 23 is 99.9 percent,” said Cruz. After the approval, Cruz said the IOPC will hire a firm that would do the siphoning although he earlier said a European company will do the siphoning.
He said at least five liters of oil continue to leak from the motor tanker every hour. “It’s very minimal, you can barely see it. Their estimate is five liters per hour, very small and then it’s immediately dispersed,” he said. (Sunnex)
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