According to a spokesman for Boskalis, parent company of SMIT, which has the contract to remove some 2,400 tons of heavy fuel oil from the beached cruise ship: ‘It is apparently a light film of hydraulic fuel that might have come from the lifeboat winches or the engine room. Thankfully, it is not heavy fuel oil that is leaking out.’
He added that, ‘apart from the hydraulic fuel, debris such as mattresses is also pushing out of the ship and spreading out across the water. We will see more of that in time, though again it is obviously not as worrying as the heavy fuel oil.’
The spokesman reiterated that efforts to remove the heavy oil had been suspended due to bad weather, which is expected to continue for one or two days. The pumping was ready to start when a halt was called on Saturday morning.
