The Philippine Coast Guard and a Japanese salvor have begun a bagging operation to seal off leaks from the sunken tanker Princess Empress, one month after the vessel went down south of Luzon. A supplier from the United Kingdom provided specialized bags for the purpose, which will be installed using an ROV from the Japanese salvage vessel Shin Nichi Maru. The vessel was lost carrying 800-900,000 litres of fuel oil of which 400,000 litres have been lost. To date, some 14000 litres of an oil-water mix have been recovered. The bagging operation will attempt to recover the remaining fuel oil by hot tapping into the ship’s oil tanks.
More details: here.
