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West Coast oil spill — inside the emergency response effort and salvage operation

West Coast oil spill — inside the emergency response effort and salvage operation
Salvage teams are working overtime to avoid an environmental disaster after the MV Ultra Galaxy cargo vessel was ravaged by storms for a second time, disrupting salvage work as the vessel broke into four parts and began spilling oil into the ocean. (Photo: Ethan van Diemen)
Kristin Engel
By Kristin Engel
5 Aug 2024
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‘Welcome to the Cape of Storms,’ says salvage master Rudolph Punt, a member of the team trying to prevent further oil spills from the shipwrecked MV Ultra Galaxy on the West Coast.

While waiting to be lifted by a helicopter and lowered aboard the MV Ultra Galaxy shipwreck to conduct assessments, salvage master Rudolph Punt from Smit Salvage explained the precarious situation they had faced for almost a month.

“You are standing on the side of a ship that is leaning over 115 degrees. It’s not a stable platform so the pilot puts you down in the best possible position they can find.

west coast oil spill rudolf punt Salvage master Rudolph Punt, from Smit Salvage, at the site of the MV Ultra Galaxy shipwreck off the West Coast. (Photo: Kristin Engel)



“Once we establish that it is safe underfoot and it doesn’t feel like it’s busy falling apart, we will disconnect from the helicopter and connect to the safety lines that we pre-rigged onboard the vessel to make sure that we don’t fall, and should we fall, that we don’t slide off the wreck,” he said.

On Friday, 2 August, Daily Maverick visited the site of the MV Ultra Galaxy shipwreck on a media trip with the South African Maritime Safety Authority, where the 189.99m long, 32.26m wide vessel was located, flanked by Eskom’s Sere Wind Farm and the MSR Tormin Mine, a mineral sands operation.

 

 

https://youtu.be/bjP4WGQAhwI?si=CW8EyuZj1-_K__So

The vessel, initially carrying an estimated 500 tonnes of oil, has broken apart off the West Coast near the coastal towns of Papendorp, Doring Bay and Lutzville. 

Read more: South African Maritime Authority works to avert disaster after West Coast oil spill

Onboard, salvors are drilling holes into tanks to see if there is any oil in them. Once they identify where the oil is, they offload the oil on to a platform supply vessel (PSV).

This is just one component of a complex operation being undertaken by the salvage teams under the South African Maritime Safety Authority as they work overtime to avoid an environmental disaster after the vessel was battered by storms for a second time.

west coast oil spill salvage The site of the MV Ultra Galaxy shipwreck — located off the West Coast between Eskom’s Sere Wind Farm and the MSR Tormin Mine, a mineral sands operation. (Photo: Kristin Engel)



Winter storms in the Cape disrupted salvage work after the vessel broke into four parts and started spilling oil into the ocean on the weekend of 27 July 2024.

Background


The Panama-flagged cargo ship was first battered by storms off the West Coast on Monday, 8 July 2024 and foundered close to Doring Bay. Eighteen Filipino crew members were rescued.

Drums of lube oil drums and eight tonnes of marine gas oil were removed from the vessel before it broke apart during another spate of Cape storms two weeks later. However, all the fertiliser cargo aboard the ship dissolved into the ocean.

SpillTech has employed over 200 members from the surrounding coastal communities to assist in the beach cleanup operations with over 200 community members raking in the tar balls from the beach sand to mitigate the extent of the oil spill from the vessel. (Photo: Ethan van Diemen)



west coast oil spill salvage The extent of the oil slick on the beach is between 1-1.5km. (Photo: Ethan van Diemen)



The salvage teams said rough seas, heavy rainfall and strong winds had been battering the area, hindering the salvage operation.

Now salvage teams are working day and night to beat the weather and ascertain how much oil is remaining on board the vessel. They will then remove the remaining oil.

Once the oil is offloaded and the wreck stabilised, it will be removed from the beach. 

Shoreline clean-up 


west coast oil spill salvage Small-scale fisherman Peter Swartz from Doringbaai is among local people enlisted by SpillTech to assist with the clean-up of the oil spill. (Photo: Kristin Engel)



Peter Swartz (28), a small-scale fisherman from Doring Bay, is a member of the SpillTech clean-up crew removing tar balls and oil residue from the beach following the oil spill.

Swartz, whose father is the skipper of a fishing boat, said the community feels passionately about the ocean and marine life.

“We don’t want to see this happen… We live near the beach in Doring Bay … and the community is a coastal community… It’s good to protect the sea creatures.”

More than 200 community members have been enlisted by SpillTech to assist in the shoreline clean-up. 

west coast oil spill salvage Salvage teams are working overtime to avoid an environmental disaster after the MV Ultra Galaxy cargo vessel was ravaged by storms for a second time, disrupting salvage work as the vessel broke into four parts and began spilling oil into the ocean. (Photo: Ethan van Diemen)



They have recovered about 200 tonnes of waste, including empty cargo bags, debris from the vessel, oil residue and contaminated sand. The collected waste is disposed of at a hazardous waste management facility.

Gareth Goosen, SpillTech’s environmental director, said no wildlife had been affected by the spill. He said the extent of the oil slick on the beach ran for about 1km to 1.5km and was patchy.

At the site of the operation, Smit Salvage’s general manager for South Africa, Richard Robertson, said the stricken ship had been carrying 320 tonnes of very low sulphur fuel oil and 130 tonnes of low sulphur marine gas oil. 

“We know for sure that fuel oil tank Number Two has breached totally, and that had 10 tonnes of oil on it. Oil tank Number One had 162 tonnes of heavy fuel, and … we are still confirming exactly how much is left but the vast majority of that has leaked out. There is also diesel oil in a tank that has 35 tonnes, that has minimal [leakage] at the moment,” said Richardson. 

“We’re making assessments right now to see how much oil is remaining on board the vessel. From that assessment, we’ll update our plans accordingly and know how to get that oil off.

“That is the biggest challenge at the moment, to first find out where that oil is, how much there is, and can we get access to that oil, and then be able to get it out.”



Robertson said the timeline to remove the oil depended on the weather. 

“At this time of the year, according to all the 20-year workability statistics, you get 5% workability throughout this whole time in the month.

“In the past 10 days, we’ve only had one day that we’ve had really calm conditions… We are very reliant on the weather. We can make as many plans as we can, and we have to fit those plans into the weather window that we get.” 

Salvage master Punt said, “Welcome to the Cape of Storms. Last year was a pretty calm year for storms … and it seems that this year Mother Nature is trying to fit two years’ worth of storms all into one season.

“The ship is lying in the surf zone so the swell does affect it quite seriously, and when the swell washes over the ship we can’t put personnel onboard because of safety concerns and obviously we can’t fly helicopters because we don’t want to lose a helicopter with seawater flushing through.”

Removing the oil


The salvage teams have been removing the oil from the vessel by pumping it to tanks on the nearby PSV. Robertson said this was limited to calm days at sea, “so only when you have a small period of time where you can take some oil off”. 

It’s a complex operation. Robertson said it takes up to 48 hours to heat the oil, which is then circulated before being pumped into a tank on the PSV. 

On the difficulty of the operation from one to 10, Robertson said “This is probably on the 10 scale. It is extremely bound to the weather. The Cape didn’t get the name ‘Cape of Storms’ for nothing. 

“Our team on board is trying to confirm whether it’s a worst-case or best-case scenario, and make a plan around that.”  

The worst-case scenario would be that only currently inaccessible tanks below the water contain oil. DM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REeWvTRUpMk

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