The transfer of oil from a ship grounded in a remote area on the Wild Coast should start on Wednesday morning, the Environmental Affairs and Tourism Department said.
Salvors have been working since first light on Tuesday to get all the equipment set up for the operation, and oil should start being pumped from the BBC China onto the Pentow Service early on Wednesday morning, said departmental spokesperson Carol Moses.
”Weather depending, of course,” she said, adding that salvage teams expected the weather to deteriorate over the next four days.
The BBC China has 120 tonnes of oil on board — 50 tonnes of heavy fuel, 60 tonnes of gas oil and 10 tonnes of lubricant.
SA Maritime Association (Sama) head Captain Bill Dernier said he expected the operation to take at least five days.
On Tuesday Moses confirmed that some oil had leaked from the vessel onto adjacent rocks and tidal pools, but wave action, and the work of a disaster management team had mitigated its effects.
No major oil spillages were expected, she said.
The BBC China was German-owned, and Dernier denied rumours of nuclear material in the ship’s cargo.
”After studying the cargo manifest in detail I can’t find any nuclear products. If there are nuclear products on board, they are on illegally,” he said.
Dernier said that the only hazardous material on board was about nine tones of batteries, paint products and compressed gas.
He said these would be difficult to reach, but would also be removed during the salvage process.
Sama — which must answer to the Department of Transport and is responsible for preventing pollution at sea — was working closely with the salvage company Smit Marine.
Smit Marine had been contracted by the ship’s owners to salvage what they could of the ship, said Dernier.
”It is not a wreck yet. We are evaluating whether the ship will float and the owners have every faith in getting her off the rocks.”
The ship was sailing from Port of Spain in the Caribbean to Durban when she ran aground about 150m off the shore near Mbotyi late on Saturday. Dernier said an enquiry into what happened would start on Wednesday.
The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism had mobilised its anti-pollution resources, although at present there was no threat of a major oil spill, said Moses.
The estuary of the Msikaba River had been closed, and anti-pollution patrol vessels were on standby. The department’s anti-pollution patrol aircraft, Kuswag VIII, was also monitoring the entire coastline, Moses said. – Sapa