Divers to Start Plugging Leaks, Extracting Oil From Next Week

The work on extracting the marine diesel and furnace oil from the fuel tanks of the sunken Liberia-flagged cargo vessel MSC ELSA 3 will begin on June 9, a senior shipping official said on Friday.

- Vishnu Varma

KOCHI:

The cargo vessel, on its way to Kochi port from the Vizhinjam International Seaport, had developed a 26-degree starboard list and subsequently sank around 14.5 nautical miles from the Kerala coast on the morning of May 25. While all the 24 foreign crew members were rescued in joint operations by the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard (ICG), dozens of containers from among the 643 onboard the vessel were scattered in the sea. Over 50 of them, mostly empty, have since then drifted to Kerala's coast. At least 12 containers, filled with dangerous goods such as calcium carbide, and another filled with rubber chemicals continue to be under the sea, along with the ship's debris.

The senior official, who did not want to be named, said a team of expert deep-sea diving personnel are slated to advance to the region where the ship sank on Monday and begin operations to extract the fuels.

"The priority right now is to plug the leaks, if any, of the oil and diesel from the tanks and ensure that it does not spill into the sea. If it leaks, the oil will corrode, resulting in damage to the marine environment. First, the leaks will be plugged and later the oil will be taken out. The fuel tanks are punctured and the oil extracted. It's a complicated process for which proper protocol has to be followed," the official, based in Mumbai, said.