MANILA: The Philippine government said it had completed the recovery of a cargo of fuel from a sunken oil tanker in Manila Bay on Thursday, averting an “environmental catastrophe.”
The Philippine-flagged MT Terranova sank on July 25 with 1.4 million litres of industrial fuel oil amid seas roughened by Typhoon Gaemi, killing one crew member.
The coast guard had warned that if the fuel had leaked it could have caused the country's biggest oil spill and an “environmental catastrophe”.
“The salvor informed us that we have recovered 96 percent of the oil residue,” Lt. Cmdr. John Encina said in video comments shared with reporters by the Philippine Coast Guard.
“What we have now is mostly water.”
Government agencies involved in the project decided at a meeting Thursday to announce the “completion of siphoning operations” on Friday, said Encina, who is overseeing the effort.
Some 1.38 million litres of oily waste were recovered between 19 August and 10 September, the coast guard said earlier.
The oil and water mixture was taken to a treatment plant near Manila.
The coast guard previously said the oil leaking from the ship's tanks had been minimal, but local governments imposed “no-take” zones affecting tens of thousands of fishermen in the bay.
The government plans to refloat the ship to continue the investigation into the sinking.
Encina declined to discuss the investigation Thursday.
One of the worst oil spills in Philippine history occurred in February 2023, when an oil tanker carrying 800,000 liters of industrial fuel sank off the central island of Mindoro.
Diesel fuel and oil spilled from the ship polluted waters and beaches off the coast of Oriental Mindoro province, devastating the fishing and tourism industries.
The oil spread across hundreds of miles of waters known to be home to some of the most diverse marine life in the world.
