Philippines begins siphoning fuel oil from sunken tanker

Manila: The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Wednesday said that Philippine divers have started siphoning industrial fuel oil (IFO) from an oil tanker that sank off Bataan province, west of Manila, on July 25.

The tanker, MTKR Terranova, carrying 1.4 million litres of IFO, sank before dawn on July 25 in the waters off Limay town in Bataan. One of its 17 crew died in the accident, Xinhua news agency reported.

Bataan Coast Guard Station Chief Lieutenant Commander Michael John Encina said that divers started siphoning one of the eight tanks on Wednesday. Each tank contains 175,000 litres of IFO.

Encina said sealing the seven tanks is ongoing to prepare for underwater siphoning. He did not say when divers will empty all the tanks.

Aside from MTKR Terranova, the PCG said divers also began siphoning 5,500 litres of oil from another sunken tanker, MTKR Bradley, which sank off Bataan province around the same time MTKR Terranova sank.

The PCG is also cleaning up the oil from another boat, MV Mirola 1, that ran aground on July 31 off Bataan province due to bad weather.