Thread: Phuket : Fuel Boat Sinks

40,000 litres is not a huge amount, think of a pool with that amount of water just to give you an idea the volume

The Chotethaworn 6 shortly before it sank about 11am on Saturday

From: Phuket Fears Enviro Disaster: Fuel Crisis Summit - Phuket Wan

Thai Navy Declare Phuket Oil Slick Contained
September 06, 2010



A Thai Naval Coast Guard unit dispatched to the scene of the Choke Thaworn 6 oil slick has declared the spill as contained on Sunday.

The Choke Thaworn 6 sank approximately 10 nautical miles off the coast of Phuket on Saturday, leaking an unstipulated amount of engine oil into the surrounding ocean.



Since Saturday mornings sinking, occurring when the vessel inadvertently capsized in a severe thunderstorm, officials from the Marine Police and Department of Marine and Coastal Resources have worked tirelessly with rescue crews to disperse the slick.

Although the vessel is thought to contain approximately 35,000-40,000 litres of heavy fuel oil, salvage expects profess the size of the spill as being equivalent to the unused fuel left in the ships engines. It is thought that the stored oil barrels have not been breached in the incident.

Sunday’s naval survey found that the oil spill had decreased to 20% of the initial size and had been contained to a small, one mile, area around the site were the Choke Thaworn 6 sank.





Naval crews and energy corporation PTT have together provided approximately 4,000 litres of oil dispersant, which has been spread at the scene. As of Sunday, salvage crews and officials were still undecided as to plans to raise the sunken vessel, which is positioned in approximately 10 meter deep waters off the coast of Phuket Town.

pattayadailynews.com

http://www.tannetwork.tv/tan/ViewData.aspx?DataID=1034503

Thai Navy Vows to Rescue Capsized Oil Ship

UPDATE : 8 September 2010

The Thai Navy has vowed to pull up a capsized oil ship off the Phuket coast as soon as the storm in the area has passed, adding that the accident is not likely to affect the environment as its oil is in a tightly closed container.

The Thai Navy said it will commence a rescue operation to pull a sunken oil ship out of the sea as soon as the weather permits.

The tragedy was reported between Ko Rachayai and Ko He, in Muang district.

There has reportedly been no notable spill.

However, Navy personnel insisted they will keep a close watch on the situation, as the ship in question is still at the sea bottom during the storm.

Authorities quoted the ship owner as saying that there is nothing to worry about as the oil is kept in tightly shut containers, adding that rescue operations will resume as soon as the weather returns to normal.

Diesel salvage mission off Phuket resumes today
Pimwara Choksakulpan
Thursday, September 9, 2010

HTMS 'Rang' at the Phuket Aquarium Pier at Cape Panwa yesterday.

PHUKET: The mission to raise the sunken Choke Taworn 6 and its cargo of diesel fuel was postponed yesterday due to rough sea conditions. The effort will resume at 10am today, weather permitting.

Rear Admiral Nawin Thananet, Chief of Staff of the Royal Thai Navy’s Third Area Command, said yesterday that visual inspection of the diesel tanks by divers revealed they are still intact with no signs of leakage.

Divers from a private firm, hired by the vessel owner, yesterday managed to rig the sunken vessel with some 35 empty plastic air containers, about 70% of those needed to conduct the operation. Once all 50 are chained in and around the vessel, air will be pumped into them from the surface.

After the containers are filled with air it should take about four hours to raise the vessel to the surface. The owner of Choke Taworn 6 told officials that the company had once before salvaged a vessel under similar circumstances using the same technique, RADM Nawin said.

The owner estimates that about 25,000 liters remain after Choke Taworn 8, a sister vessel of Choke Taworn 6, managed to pump off a good deal of fuel before the vessel went down. It currently sits on the seabed at a depth of about 35 meters.

Once raised, the remaining fuel will be pumped onto two other vessels.

Two navy ships will assist in the operation and be prepared to deal with any leakage that might occur during the refloating effort.

HTMS Rang is equipped with 3,200 liters of chemical dispersant supplied by PTT.

HTMS Man Nok has 400 liters of dispersant and a 500-meter-long sorbent boom, RADM Navin said.

The navy and the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) have agreed to guidelines for the safe use of chemical dispersants, if they are required.

The liquid will not be injected into water less than five feet deep or withing 500 yards of any shoreline, as this could do more harm than good to the marine environment, he said.

A DMCR vessel will also take part in the mission, departing from the Phuket Aquarium pier at Cape Panwa at 1pm with officials and members of the local press.

phuketgazette.net

Diesel salvage mission off Phuket still on hold
Pimwara Choksakulpan
Friday, September 10, 2010

DIVING FOR DIESEL: Sea gypsy Somnoi Pramongkit prepares to take the plunge on Wednesday. All sea gypsies from Laem Tukkae share the same surname, which means 'fishing business'.

The sea gypsies work from a traditional longtail boat, rigged up with an air compressor so they can breathe at depth.

PHUKET: Efforts to salvage the sunken Choke Thaworn 6 and its cargo of some 25,000 liters of diesel fuel remain on hold today due to big waves and strong currents.

Members of the media were yesterday taken aboard a Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) vessel to the site, 12 nautical miles off Phuket’s southwest coast.

At the site were three sister ships of the sunken vessel and a complement of sea gypsy divers from the Laem Tukkae community on Koh Sireh in Rassada, who have been hired to conduct the salvage operation.

Head diver Surin Pramongkit told the press on Wednesday that his team had yet to rig up any of the 50 steel drums needed to be attached to the sunken vessel as part of the salvage mission.

Once all of the drums are attached, they will be filled with air, the buoyancy from which should raise the vessel from its current position 43 meters below the surface, he said.

Efforts at the site thus far have only achieved tying rope to the sunken boat and other preparatory work. All fifty 200-liter steel oil drums remain on the deck of Choke Taworn 7.

Working from a single longtail boat with an air compressor, the sea gypsies use air pumped down through a hose from the surface rather than scuba gear. The method, which they also use for walking along the seabed to collect marine species, has drawn much complaint from the local recreational diving community in the past.

The darkness at 43 meters makes the work difficult and only three divers can go down with one drum at a time, he said.

The team stopped work at about 4pm Wednesday and it has not since resumed.

Mr Surin told the Gazette this afternoon that offshore currents and wave activity were too strong to continue the operation today and that he was monitoring the weather and sea conditions closely, waiting for another chance.

He failed to give an estimate as to when the mission would be completed, but guaranteed eventual success.

He has already been involved in 40 successful boat salvage efforts using this technique, he said.

Two Thai Navy vessels, HTMS Man Nok and HTMS Rang, remain on standby for when work resumes.

On Wednesday the two vessels monitored the work from a position of about one kilometer away. The vessels are equipped with sorbent booms and chemical dispersant in case any of the submerged tanks leak during the salvage operation.

HTMS Man Nok also has a team of expert Navy Seal divers aboard, but they are not involved in the salvage effort.

phuketgazette.net

Sea Gypsies End Phuket Environmental Scare
Sert Tongdee
Tuesday, September 14, 2010


Fuel drums bob along in the wake of the raised fuel transport vessel
Photo by phuketwan.com











Click a thumbnail to view more photographs

PHUKET'S sea gypsies have brought up from the depths the diesel transporter that threatened to damage the island's marine environment.

It was all done with junk and rope. A dive to 43 metres . . . no problems for these sea gypsies . . . and with the help of some empty fuel drums filled with air, up bobbed the sunken Chotethaworn 6.

This afternoon, the hulk was towed into the deep sea port at Rassada on Phuket, where the sea gypsies busied themselves, raising the vessel still further out of the water.

The cargo of 25,000 litres of diesel will be pumped out soon, and the Phuket environmental scare will be over.

The Chotethaworn 6 went down in bad weather on September 4 while transporting its cargo to Racha Yai, home to the five-star Racha Resort.

The salvage operation, initially involving a flotilla of 10 vessels from Phuket, just in case there were fuel leaks, was delayed by more bad weather.

In the end it was Phuket's sea gypsies who did what most divers, even with the best of equipment, would have found a difficult task.

Tomorrow they'll be back to their usual occupation as fishermen.

phuketwan.com