AROUND 30,000 liters of diluted diesel fuel oil were siphoned off from the sunken mv Eva Mary Grace on June 29, 2019, Saturday.
Philippine Coast Guard Central Visayas spokesman Lt. Michael John Encina said as of 3:28 p.m. on Saturday, they were able to extract 30,000 liters of diluted oil from the starboard (right) side of the vessel.
“The oil from the right-hand tank of mv Eva Mary Grace that capsized is already extracted. We started at around 1:15 p.m. today. May halong seawater na yung (Seawater already mixed in with the) 30,000 liters na na extract. But we did not find an oil spill around the vicinity of the incident,” he confirmed.
The vessel mv Eva Mary Grace, owned by Eva Shipping Corp., sank at a private port in San Fernando, Cebu on June 25, 2019, Tuesday.
It carried at least 12 crew members when it sank.
The Philippine Coast Guard said the crew members were loading cement bags onto the ship when a swell hit the vessel, causing it to list and then capsize.
Encina said the captain of the ship confirmed that the mv Eva Mary Grace carried 12,000 liters of pure diesel oil.
“Our salvor personnel and the coast guard marine environmental protection unit, together with the coast guard Naga, is assessing kung papaano naman nila i-extract yung sa (how they will extract from the) port side or left tank, which also contains diesel fuel, as soon as possible,” he said.
The extracted oil was transferred to Morning Breeze, the barge of the salvaging firm Uni Orient Pearl Ventures Inc.
After the extraction of the oil, they can already proceed with the salvaging procedure, Encina added. (WBS)