Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) officials announced today that divers have commenced the operation to siphon industrial fuel oil (IFO) from the MTKR Terranova, a tanker that sank off Bataan province on July 25. The vessel, which was carrying 1.4 million liters of IFO, sank in the early hours near Limay town, resulting in the death of one crew member.
Lieutenant Commander Michael John Encina of the Bataan Coast Guard Station reported that the operation began with the removal of fuel from one of the tanker’s eight tanks, each with a capacity of 175,000 liters. Efforts are ongoing to seal the remaining tanks to prepare for the extraction process, though no timeline has been provided for the completion of this task.
In addition to the MTKR Terranova, PCG divers have also started siphoning 5,500 liters of oil from the MTKR Bradley, another tanker that sank near Bataan around the same period. Furthermore, the PCG is engaged in cleaning up oil from the MV Mirola 1, which ran aground on July 31 in the same province due to adverse weather conditions.
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