WILHELMSEN ASKS SALVORS’ BIDS FOR SUNKEN TRICOLOR

WILHELMSEN ASKS SALVORS’ BIDS FOR SUNKEN TRICOLOR    Wilhelmsen Lines, the Norwegian shipowner that owns the car carrier Tricolor that capsized in December in the English Channel, has requested bids from 12 salvage firms to remove the sunken vessel.
   The Tricolor, which lies on its side with waves breaking over the ‘Wilhelmsen’ name on its hull, has been rammed twice by passing vessels in a heavy-trafficked shipping channel.
   The owner’s options include refloating the vessel intact before towing it away, or sectioning and removing it piecemeal.
   “The salvors have two weeks to return their bids,” Per Ronnevig, a Wilhelmsen spokesman in Oslo, told American Shipper on Tuesday. “The company will then take two or three weeks to pick the one we want.”
   Meantime, heavy gales have delayed pumping bunker oil from the Tricolor. About half of the oil has been removed, leaving 1,000 metric tons in tanks within the hull.
   A new pumper-and-tank barge, the Romez, was on-site Tuesday. “We will resume pumping as soon as the seas permit,” Ronnevig said.