Friday, August 25, 2006

[the coming oil disaster] petron is doing everything possible

I’m just reading the latest Underwater Times article about the Solar 1, still lying on the seabed, still rusting, still with 450 000 gallons of oil ready to spill. Just skimming down looking for Petron’s plan to raise the tanker and prevent the ecological disaster:

"For us, it's a moral responsibility to help the people clean up the oil spill," said Peter Paul Shotwell, Petron's supply operations and planning manager.

Shotwell said a team from a Japanese firm, Fukuda Salvage and Marine Works, is due to arrive in Guimaras on Saturday or Sunday to retrieve the sunken ship, motor tanker Solar I. He said the team has already left Japan.

Shotwell said the firm will be bringing in a vessel, Shinsei Maru, which is equipped with a remote operated vehicle that can search the seabed down to 2,000 meters and take photos to determine the ship's condition underwater.

That’s a start.

"That's part of our commitment," said Shotwell, referring to the cleanup and subsequent rehabilitation of areas that have been affected. "Petron is coordinating with Siliman University (SU), University of the Visayas (UV), and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and they are giving us some help" in the development of a long-term rehabilitation plan. He hoped that the cleanup would be finished in 45 days."

Petron officials are "to provide protective measures to prevent the oil spill from reaching the other shorelines that are threatened.

Yes, fine but isn't the tanker the main priority now?

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