With the removal of all remaining oil and fuel onboard the grounded and now wrecked Panama-flagged general cargo vessel no longer feasible; the salvage effort has smoothly moved onto removal of the wreck off South Africa’s west coast beach, as soon as possible, according to the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) in a statement, reports SAMSA.
Wreck Removed
SAMSA, in a statement in Pretoria, confirmed that a tender invitation to industry had recently been issued, with keen services suppliers’ interest having already been noted from both locally and abroad.
This, according to SAMSA, is consistent with and a follow-through to the authority’s directive to the vessel owners to have the wreck removed from the South African west coast on the Atlantic Ocean.
“As a result,” said SAMSA: “the P&I Club invited to tender to the industry in the last week, with interest from both local and international companies.” On the current condition of the beached vessel now overturned, broken into two distinct pieces, with breached oil and fuel tanks, as well as requisite activity related thereto, SAMSA said: “Following extensive assessments conducted over the past few days, it has been confirmed that the MV Ultra Galaxy has completely broken up due to the severe weather conditions experienced last weekend.”
Fertilizers Onboard
According to SAMSA, at the time of the vessel’s grounding in early July, she had a full load of fertilizer in bags onboard. “Due to the extreme weather conditions at the time and the angle she was at, the ship’s hatch covers were dislodged and detached from the vessel…”
Without hatch covers the cargo holds were left vulnerable and consequently, the ship’s entire load of fertilizer cargo was swept away by the sea. As the fertilizer dissolves water, water sample testing was done, and to date, zero reports of a negative impact to the environment have been received.
SAMSA further explained that in terms of the types of fuel, the casualty vessel had onboard at the time of the grounding incident, in addition to low amounts of hydraulic and related oils she had 332 tons of VLSFO (low sulfur) and 180 tons of MGO in her tanks as bunker fuel.
“Before she started breaking up salvors were able to remove eight (8) tonnes of bunkering marine gas oil from the wreck while the rest of the oil unfortunately spilled after they were compromised due to extremely bad weather and landed up on the beaches directly in front of the vessel,” said SAMSA.
On Friday SAMSA said: “Given the extent of the damage, the likelihood of any intact fuel tanks remaining on the vessel is highly unlikely. Consequently, the initial plan to pump the remaining oil from the wreck with the assistance of the Platform Supply Vessel (PSV) is no longer feasible.
“With all the fuel presumed to have been released and collected on the nearby mining beach, the focus of the operation has now shifted to a monitoring and caretaking phase…”
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Source: SAMSA
