Gibraltar warns of a "slowdown" in the emptying of fuel from the OS35 due to an ingress of water

• Andalusia Juanma Moreno asks for a protocol that commits Gibraltar while the discharge of OS35 reaches the beaches of La Línea

• Gibraltar Part of the spill from the ship stranded in Gibraltar arrives at a beach in La Línea

The Government of Gibraltar has warned this Saturday of

of fuel from the bulk carrier OS35, semi-sunken off the coast of Gibraltar after having collided with another ship, and in this regard has indicated that there is currently an inlet of water in the engine room that "affects the pumping operation".

This is stated in a statement detailing that the Chief Minister of Gibraltar,

, and the Governor, Vice Admiral Sir David Steel, have chaired this Saturday at noon a meeting of the Gibraltar Contingency Council - which will meet again in the afternoon-, which was also attended by the Vice Principal Minister, Joseph García;

the Port Minister, Vijay Daryanani, and the Environment Minister, John Cortés.

There is currently a

of OS35, so that "the ship's own systems cannot currently be used safely to pump fuel", according to the Gibraltarian authorities, who clarify that, instead, the rescuers will have to resort at this stage "to independent systems outside the ship".

The diving teams are investigating the origin of the water entering the engine room, and "work is being done to eliminate any

material that could increase the levels of contamination", as indicated by Gibraltar, whose government clarifies that " the latest reports suggest that the ingress of water may be under control."

TANK 2 REMOVAL

Likewise, the rescue teams continue the operation of extracting fuel from tank two of the aforementioned ship.

In this regard, the Government of Gibraltar specifies that, although most of the fuel has already been successfully extracted, the operation has been "substantially slowed down by this latest event, and

".

The Harbor Master is deploying

layered around OS35.

This involves an ongoing operation to deploy a kilometer of barrier around the vessel, which is being deployed by Spanish Salvamento Marítimo at the request of the Port Master by the pollution control vessel 'Clara Campoamor'.

Other barrier placement operations will continue around OS35 and elsewhere in the vicinity of the ship, and "in any area that requires additional protection as soon as operationally possible", according to the Government of Gibraltar, from where they add that " The key priority in preparing for the operation to remove fuel oil from OS35 Tank 1 is to have successful layered containment

possible level around the vessel."

The goal of this operational task is to "try to avoid as much free-floating oil as possible from being dumped and

."

Once this containment is established to the satisfaction of the Port Master, the rescuers will be able to proceed with the work of

"as cleanly as possible from the vessel's Tank 1."

CONTINUOUS FILTRATION IS "INEVITABLE"

The current advice is that while the salvagers wait to be able to remove the fuel from the ship, the ship's fuel tanks

.

This, according to the Government of Gibraltar, means that there will be residual quantities of fuel in the tanks and, as a result -- "given the deformed state of some parts of the ship's hull"--, the continual leaking of small amounts of fuel will be "almost inevitable". of contaminating materials from the OS35 during the period that it remains 'in situ'".

The deployment of barriers in layers around the ship "will prevent the maximum number of leaks in open water,

, which is not technologically possible to provide," according to the Government of the Rock, which adds that, to In this regard, it should be noted that "all salvage operation options are not optimal in terms of absolute pollution control."

The goal of layered containment is to "minimize seepage" but, according to Gibraltar, "

outside the barriers into the surrounding open water, despite the best strategy possible layered containment", so that "this situation will continue for the rest of the summer and until the salvage operation is completed".

OIL LAYER REMOVAL

The Government of Gibraltar indicates that defoaming operations are "continuous, but have limits to what they can achieve".

Skimming inside the barrier near the ship

, and the veil in open water is "currently light, which means it needs to be corralled into denser patches in order to be picked up".

To assist in these operations, a small purpose-built catamaran launch, which can operate 24 hours a day, is en route from Cadiz with

and is expected to arrive and be operational this Saturday.

This vessel is capable of skimming

, including the light coating in open water.

It will target the contamination zones identified by the overflights carried out to assist the GPA by the Spanish Ministry of the Environment and the helicopter deployed by the Port of Algeciras in support of ongoing operations.

The GPA "is gathering all available resources that can help the operational tasks required by the Port Authority in support of

ongoing rescue and

The Port of Algeciras, for its part, "continues to work in close coordination with the GPA to establish whether any of the available assets are adequate and to

".

CLEAN-UP OPERATIONS ON LAND

The Government of Gibraltar also notes that the Department of the Environment is leading the clean-up operations on land and is actively working with

"to co-ordinate and safely manage shoreline clean-up efforts".

A shoreline cleanup is being planned for this Sunday in collaboration with green organizations ESG, GONHS and the

.

People who wish to volunteer should write to the Department of the Environment, at the email address info.environment@gibraltar.gov.gi, with their name, contact details and any particular skills or experience that may be relevant.

Finally, sightings of oiled

must be reported to the EPRU at +350 58009620.

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