More than 1M liters of oil retrieved from sunken tanker

MT Terranova sank in Bataan’s portion of Manila Bay on July 25 amid heavy rains caused by the combined effects of Typhoon Carina and a strong southwest monsoon (habagat).

MANILA, Philippines — More than one million liters of oil have been recovered from the sunken tanker Terranova between Aug. 19 and 31, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said on Sunday.

As of 8 p.m. on Saturday, the PCG reported that Terranova’s contracted salvor, Harbor Star, gathered a total 1,032,557 liters of oil during this period.

READ: MT Terranova oil siphoning halted for now, says PCG

The PCG stated that Harbor Star deployed additional pumps, noting that the rate of recovery was 18,575 liters per hour.

“As of yesterday, 346,000 liters of oily wastewater were loaded onto trucks at Orion Shipyard for transport to a waste management facility in Marilao, Bulacan, for proper disposal,” it added.

The BRP Panglao conducted an aerial surveillance at the site.

Meanwhile, the contracted salvor of MTKR Jason Bradley, FES Challenger, continued its resealing and patching operations of the vessel’s manhole and air vents.

“The oil spill response team patrolled the coastline and observed no oil sheen,” said the PCG. The Terranova and Jason Bradley sank off Bataan on July 25 and July 27. —Luisa Cabato