An oil-containment boom that had been removed from around a bulker grounded off Gibraltar has been replaced, the Gibraltar Port Authority announced on Monday.
The boom had been first placed around Oldstone Cargo’s 35,364-dwt OS 35 (built 1999) in late August after it collided with Asyad Shipping’s 162,000-cbm Adam LNG (built 2014) to contain oil leaking from the vessel.
Gibraltar Pilots intentionally beached the ship to prevent it from sinking.
The port said on 3 April that the boom had been removed in anticipation of storm swells that would have likely torn apart the boom and increased risk of further oil contamination.
“The captain of the port is pleased to confirm that the heavy swells on the east side subsided enough to enable the safe redeployment of the boom around the OS 35 Saturday evening,” the port said on Monday.
“There have been no further reports of free floating residues, whilst the monitoring and cleaning of remaining residues along Gibraltar’s coastline is ongoing.”
The port said on 5 April that the storm swells had caused the already cracked hull to move, break into two separate pieces and release more oil into the water.
“Some oil residue can be seen to be escaping from the ship and it is expected that this coming from keel duct that contained the pipes connecting fuel tank No 1 to the engine room,” the port said in an update.
“It is important to stress that all possible extractable oil was removed from the OS 35 last year, and this observed oil is residues contained in this duct which is at the very bottom of the vessel’s structure.”
The port said on Saturday that the ship was no longer leaking oil and that any remaining tar balls would be removed from the shore.
