Ocean Infinity is set to launch a hunt for the wreckage of the Polaris VLOC that sank off South America in March 2017.
The Houston-based firm, which was involved in a failed bid to find the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, said the search for the 265,000-dwt Stellar Daisy (built 1993) would start later this month.
The ore carrier was lost in the South Atlantic Ocean on 31 March 2017 about 2,500 nautical miles due east of Uruguay with 24 people on board, whilst transporting iron ore from Brazil to China.
Ocean Infinity said it would be “working with the Government of South Korea” in the search for the wreckage. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“For the sake of all involved we sincerely hope that we can find Stellar Daisy and be able to collect as much evidence about her loss as we can,” said Ocean Infinity chief executive Oliver Plunkett.
“As always with deep sea search there can be no guarantee of success as neither the precise location nor the specific circumstances of her loss are known.
“We are grateful that the Government of South Korea awarded us the contract for this challenging project and affirmed Ocean Infinity’s position as the leading deep-sea search and recovery services provider in the world.”
In September last year the South Korean government announced that it would search for the wreck of the Stellar Daisy and its black box.
The wreck of the bulker, which was converted from a 1993-built VLCC in 2008, is said to be lying at a depth of 3,000 metres.
