MV Tasman Spirit

P1

• Hemingway
• Hyperion
• Tasman Spirit
• Mabini
• Kenko
• Kenko Maru

Nippon Kaiji Kyokai Class of 26 June 2002

IMO 7404669

The Tasman Spirit was a 1979 built oil tanker, which was on 28 July 2003 aground off Karachi. The ship broke in two and caused the biggest oil spill off the coast of Pakistan. The salvage company Smit lifted the ship, which was then scrapped.

History

1979-2003

The ship was built in 1979 as hull number 265 of the Japanese shipyard Onomichi Zosen Kabushiki Kaisha and provided as Kenko Maru in service. In the course of its working life it was sold several times and was successively the names of Kenko, Mabini, Tasman Spirit, Hyperion, Hemingway. Since June 1998, the ship owned by the Maritime Assimina was in Piraeus and was operated by the resident at the same address Pelembros shipping company Shipping. On 1 July 1998, the shipping company named the ship again on the name of the Tasman Spirit, under which it was to ride in beaching.

Stranding and first steps

The Tasman Spirit was chartered in 2003 by the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation to transport 67 532 tonnes of crude oil type Iranian Light crude from Kharg Iceland for further processing by the Pakistan Refinery Limited, Karachi. Furthermore, around 440 tonnes of fuel oil were in the bunker tanks. On July 27, 2003, compared clock 1:35 local time the ship ran aground off the port of Karachi in position 24 ° 47 ' .4 N; 066 ° 59 ' .35 E. In a first study, it was found that the majority of cargo tanks had leaks suffered by the occurring damage to the soil of the ship, while the bunker tanks remained intact. The crew was arrested by the Pakistani government for three months, the captain of the ship sat five months in detention. The shipowner was in the weeks after the accident, about half of the still present in the oil and ship most of the bunkered fuel oil with smaller tankers and tank barges easier. From the 8th to the 10th of August, two large batches of crude oil had been pumped from the ship together 13,000.

Breaking the ship and oil spills

The person sitting on ground ship was exposed to the rough threshold of prevailing at that time south-west monsoon in the period after the stranding. After already on August 11 showed further structural damage to the hull of the tanker finally broke on the evening of August 13 into two parts and put the first release large amounts of crude oil. Until August 18, several thousand tons of oil were already leaked. After August 22, collapsed further parts of the ship's structure, reappeared one to two hundred tons of oil from the ship. More oil spills were on 29 August and 4 September.

The salvage

The lasting several months raising the wreck of the Tasman Spirit was conducted by the salvage company Smit. Smit was awarded in December 2003 by the Insurer The American Club, the P & I Club of the shipowner the order to pump the remaining amount of oil in the wreck, and to raise the wreck lying in the fairway on the basis of Lloyd 's Open Form and remove.

The bow had the major structural damage - over 90 % of the bottom shell plating of the ship had been destroyed or were missing - but also the stern of the tanker suffered major damage to the soil and Steuerbordseitenbeplattung and the bulkheads and longitudinal girders.

On 10 February 2004, should be just before the bow lifted and taken to the scrapping Gadani Beach, the salvage operations have been temporarily suspended because the Pakistani customs authorities 46% inches (about 14 million U.S. dollars) called on the entrained for salvaging equipment, what an unusual practice at salvage this magnitude. Finally, after all the bureaucratic hurdles were overcome, first, the bow was lifted and brought to Gadani Beach, which was followed by uplift and the removal of the stern.

Oil spill response and consequences

A total of at least 35,000 tons of oil and most of the bunker oil could be recovered from the damaged vessel. Estimates of the amount of the sea came from the Tasman Spirit oil rich 12000-30000 tons. The largest part, several thousand tons of oil were rinsed after the breakup of the Tasman Spirit in the night from 13th to 14th of August in the sea. First was the oil in Clifton Beach, the main tourist beach of Karachi used, washed ashore. Large quantities of oil exaggerated especially with a strong local tides of the area of the ship to the port of Karachi. The spread of the contamination extended to a radius of about ten miles around the wrecked ship. As a first measure solvents were applied from Hercules C -130 aircraft with so-called aerial dispersant spraying system ( ADDS Pack ). A short time later, the port authorities Karachi Port Trust ( KPT ) and the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency gave permission for large-scale application of further solvent. The KPT this also brought their own vehicles for use. In the port of Karachi, about 140 tons of oil were collected in total.

In particular, in the most polluted Clifton Beach high levels of oil constituents were measured in the ambient air, which led to a series of treatments of the involved population and school closures up to a week. The beach was cleaned manually and later through technical equipment, the lack of suitable collection containers delayed the work. Based on an agreement with the local authorities, a public dumping ground in Karachi City was intended for the disposal of oil residues. Clifton Beach was the middle of October again to the public.

The Iranian Light Crude Oil was strongly mixed in the wide-open tanks of the wrecked ship by the incident swell and resolved in this way for the most part in the lake water. Subsequent field studies showed little or no long-term damage to the mangroves, salt pans and other vulnerable areas of the polluted area.

Due to the pollution a three-month fishing ban in the affected area was declared by the Marine Fisheries Department. In the wake of the method, only few reports of lasting adverse effects of fishing were loud.

One of the main reasons for the relatively low impact of the sea came from the Tasman Spirit oil quantity is due to the properties of the light - Iranian crude. It has a high content of volatile oils and rants, especially under the prevailing climatic conditions of Karachi, very quickly.