Philippines delays recovery of sunken tanker's oil

AFP | Manila, Philippines

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com

The Philippines postponed yesterday the removal of fuel from a tanker that sank in Manila Bay, with fears of an environmental catastrophe growing as leaking oil reached shore for the first time.

The siphoning of the 1.4 million litres of industrial fuel oil from the vessel's hold was pushed back to Tuesday at the earliest so divers could seal nine leaking valves first, Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Rear Admiral Armando Balilo told reporters.

The tanker sank in bad weather off Manila early Thursday, killing one crew member and leaving the Philippines facing the possibility of its worst oil spill ever.

"An order was given to seal the valves first before the start of the siphoning operations in order to prevent further leakages," Balilo said Sunday.

"The weather remains bad out there but they have a target to finish this (sealing the valves) by tomorrow."

Balilo later told AFP the coast guard had found "small patches" of oil on the coast of the municipality of Bulakan, on the bay's north shore near Manila.

The contaminated shoreline was on the edge of a reclamation project for a future international airport, he said.

Balilo said the coast guard was also investigating a report by the environmental group Greenpeace that a "thick layer of oil" was coating the sea Sunday about four kilometres (2.5 miles) off the coast of Hagonoy municipality, near Bulakan.

The coast guard has warned that it would be an "environmental catastrophe" if the entire cargo were to leak.