The Philippine Coastguard said on Thursday that operations to drain 1.4 million litres of industrial fuel oil from a tanker that sank during a typhoon have been postponed for two weeks to ensure that the procedure would be safe.
The coastguard said the delay was needed to allow the salvage company to fabricate metal caps that will be used to reinforce the sealing of the valves of the oil containers of the MT Terranova that have initially been sealed using canvas bags.
The salvage company told the coastguard that the
canvass bags will be replaced with metal caps "for
durability during siphoning operations and in times of heavy weather.”
"With the above developments, the siphoning will be moved to not later than two weeks from now,” said coastguard commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan. (DPA)