The Liberian-flag White Sea began offloading fuel overnight into a barge. Plans are to remove 110,000 barrels of the ship’s fuel oil cargo and attempt to refloat the ship at around 8 p.m. tonight during high tide.
| White Sea |
Capt. Robert R. O’Brien, Coast Guard Captain of the Port of New York and New Jersey, approved the salvage plan, which calls for additional barges should more product need to be lightered from the White Sea to refloat it.
A dive survey is scheduled for today to assess the condition of the ship’s hull.
The White Sea was en route to Singapore from Bayonne, N.J., with 556,000 barrels of low sulfur fuel oil when it lost steering and ran aground four miles north of Sandy Hook, N.J., at 6:30 a.m. Thursday just outside the Ambrose shipping channel.
While Ambrose is the main channel into the Port of New York and New Jersey, the Coast Guard said the accident has not caused delays to other incoming and departing vessels.
The ship’s crew immediately deployed oil containment boom as a precaution. The ship suffered breaches to two ballast water tanks, but the product compartments inside the double-hulled ship remain intact. There are no reports of injuries aboard the White Sea.
“By lightering 110,000 barrels, we hope to safely refloat the White Sea and avert any type of environmental impact a serious hull breach may cause,” said Lt. Craig Toomey, a Coast Guard Sector New York Command Duty Officer. “Vessel groundings, especially groundings of tank ships filled with oil, call for exercising prudence and patience in order to avoid any additional hull stress a rushed salvage operation may cause.”
The White Sea is owned by the Singapore-based Tanker Pacific Management on a time charter to United Arab Emirates-based Westport Shipping Services. Its local agent is Atlantic Shipping Co.
