Tuvalu-flagged oil tanker MV Theresa Arctic has finally been refloated 22 days since it ran aground at Bofa beach in Kilifi, Kenya.
The refloating was successfully accomplished this week by combined efforts of Smit International, Alpha Logistics, Cormaco and the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) salvage teams. According to AIS, the vessel was towed to Mombasa and he was berthed there on July 12. No leak was reported.
Mombasa port personnel refloated the ship in a repeat of the operations which had earlier been halted twice due to bad weather and inappropriate equipment. The KPA salvage team said due to rough weather, it had to put contingency measures in place to mitigate pollution risks as the local community’s water source intake is less than 200 metres from the site.
The vessel built in 1988 was laden with 46,000 metric tonnes of vegetable oil and ran aground, in position 03 39S 039 53E, off Kilifi, Kenya while enroute from Port Keelang in Malaysia, to Mombasa on 20 June.
Salvage operation on the high seas
Business Daily reported that experts suspected that the ship’s engines may have broken down in the middle of the high seas leading to its stalling.
The KPA placed booms around the vessels as a precaution against potential pollution due to oil spillage.
The ports agency dispatched its five tugs — Nyangumi, Simba, Comarco Prince, Alpha Granada and Alpha Pina — to the site along with divers who reported that the damage was limited to a ballast tank with no risk of pollution.
