Microbes used to clean Orissa oil spill

Thaindian News 9 Oct 09;

Bhubaneswar, Oct 9 (IANS) Microbes are being used to clear an oil spill caused by a ship that sank last month off the Paradip port in Orissa, a senior port official said Friday.

“The microbes are a kind of bacteria which live on oil. The microbes will clean up the spilled oil on the coast, as well as in the water. The work has started from today (Friday)” the official told IANS.

“On our request, The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi and the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) sent us the microbes.”

The vessel, under a Mongolian flag, ran aground Sep 9 in the harbour area off the port in Jagatsinghpur district, some 100 km from here, with 924 tonnes of furnace oil and about 25,000 tonnes of iron ore fines.

Twenty-seven crew members were on board. All but a Ukrainian engineer, whose body was found 10 days later, were rescued.

The port authorities said that small quantities of oil have started oozing out of the ship since Sep 21, although out of the 924 tonnes of oil, 900 tonnes are inside a double-bottom tank fully secured.

The accident spot is close to the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary, one of the world’s few remaining nesting sites for the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles.

US firm to pump out oil from sunk ship
The Times of India 9 Oct 09;

KENDRAPADA: Paradip Port Trust authorities on Friday said they had selected a US company to pump out oil from Mongolian vessel Black Rose, which
sank on September 9.

PPT chairman K Raghuramiah said the Florida-based Resolve Marine Group was shortlisted for the task after studying four tenders. "Two Indian and two foreign companies had filed tenders to pump out the oil. But we decided to entrust job to the Florida company because of their vast experience in salvaging fuel from sunken ships," he said.

"Paradip Port Trust will spend about Rs 17.5 crore to pump out oil from the sunken ship," Raghuramiah said. "The work will be completed within 10 days. We shall provide the drawings of the location of fuel tanks, vent pipes and sounding pipes," he added.

"The work will be executed observing all the safety and statutory requirements and the price offered must be inclusive of all taxes, duties, fees, cess, transport, insurance and all other incidental charges and must be a firm price. The work must be planned in consultation with the Deputy Conservator and Tug Engineer so as to avoid interruption in the operation," the PPT chairman said.

Earlier, PPT officials refused to pump out the oil from the sunken ship by claiming that it is not the responsibility of the port to pump out oils as the ship sank off in the sea not within the port area.

"As per the Merchant Shipping Act, port authorities are not responsible for sinking of a ship beyond the harbour area. But PPT decided to pump out 975 tonnes of furnace oil and diesel to prevent oil spill," Raghuramiah said.

The sunken ship has 924.4 tonnes of furnace oils and 48 tonnes of diesel. Fear of fuel oil spill from the sunken ship is the prime concern as the sunken ship area in the Bay of Bengal is situated near the Gahiramatha marine sanctuary, the world's largest rookery of the Olive Ridley turtles.