Philippines Rushes to Contain Oil Spill From Sunken Tanker

Philippine authorities are rushing to contain an oil spill from a tanker that sank early Thursday, killing one crew member, after Typhoon Gaemi battered the nation.

A Philippine-flagged tanker carrying 1.4 million liters of industrial fuel oil capsized 3.6 nautical miles east off Lamao Point in Bataan province, which faces Manila Bay.

The rest of the 17 crew members aboard Motor Tanker Terra Nova were rescued, the Philippine Coast Guard said in a statement.

The coast guard said it would dispatch three vessels to mitigate the impact of the oil spill. The coast guard has set “an operational target of seven days to finish siphoning the oil from the sunken tanker to stop further spread,” commandant Ronnie Gil Gavan said.

PCG responds to a maritime incident involving Philippine-flagged Motor Tanker (MT) Terra Nova that capsized and eventually submerged 3.6 nautical miles east off Lamao Point, Limay, Bataan, at around 1:10AM today, 25 July 2024.
✍️https://t.co/tN3nSkxRTd #CoastGuardPH pic.twitter.com/qC2VKPdmiq
— Philippine Coast Guard (@coastguardph) July 25, 2024

Authorities have monitored an oil spill 5.6 nautical miles east off Lamao Point, with an estimated coverage of two nautical miles carried by strong current heading east to northeast, according to the coast guard.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., in a televised briefing on the aftermath of Gaemi, instructed agencies to assess the oil spill’s impact.

“What we need to assess is where was the capsized vessel? The fuel is being released, what are the tides? What are the winds? Where is it headed? So that we can get ahead. We need some determinations of that,” Marcos said.

Last year, a Philippine tanker carrying 800,000 liters of industrial fuel sank off Mindoro province south of Manila, causing a spill that took months to clean up.