20 Oct 2011

Salvors resume pumping oil off Rena

10:30 pm on 20 October 2011

Salvage teams resumed pumping oil from a stricken container ship off Tauranga on Thursday.

The Rena has been wedged on Astrolabe Reef since 5 October and is badly damaged. Up to 350 tonnes of oil and 88 containers have spilled from it, polluting beaches mainly in the Bay of Plenty.

[image:3410:full]

The operation by Svitzer Salvage to transfer the oil to a bunker barge was suspended on Monday due to heavy seas.

The forecast on Thursday was for a light swell and the weather in the region is expected to improve over the long weekend with only a few light showers.

Maritime New Zealand says a slight hiccup occurred in the operation when the circuits of a booster pump blew on Thursday, but it did not halt the transfer of oil to a bunker barge.

Maritime New Zealand's salvage unit manager Bruce Anderson says a spare booster pump to speed up the transfer of oil has been sent to the Rena.

Mr Anderson says salvors are looking at ways to speed up the operation, including heating the oil to make it thinner and easier to pump. However, that is not possible at present, as there are not enough power sources on the ship.

Divers have been inside the vessel are looking at how to seal off the watertight doors to the engine room to maintain the ship's buoyancy.

Mr Anderson says the aim is to pump some water out of the ship so salvage crews can get to a submerged starboard fuel tank.

Maritime New Zealand says sensors on the ship show the Rena has rotated about half a degree and the stern has lifted by a degree, but it appears to be stable.

Svitzer Salvage says the oil needs to be transferred before cargo can be removed from the ship. Salvors will stay on board overnight on Thursday.

It is likely the 100 square kilometre exclusion zone around the Rena will be decreased slightly.

More oil on beaches

Maritime New Zealand's commander on the scene Ian Niblock says oil has been found in the top 200 millimetres of sand along Mount Maunganui and Papamoa beaches.

The beaches, except for Main Beach, will remain closed until the oil is removed.