CRUZ Holding Ltd (CHL) director Selwyn Douglas confirmed there was no oil spill when the vessel Southern Phoenix sunk in the Suva harbour in 2017.
Mr Douglas told The Fiji Times they had to ensure there was no oil spill and invested more than $2 million while extracting oil from the sunken vessel.
“There is no damage to the fishing ground because there is no pollution, when the ship sank, we took the initiative to fly over an oil recovery team from Australia and Singapore, and they were on site on the evening of the day when the boat sank.
“At 5am and 7am, we were picking people up at Nausori airport. We took the initiative to get Dive Centre people to block all the breathers on the boat to prevent any oil from giving out, and we have to give credit to MSAF for being very helpful.
“The oil spill amount was quite minimal, we believe no oil sipped to the Suva Harbour. We are very pleased to say that there was no oil escape, all the 200 tons of oil was recovered from the ship at a considerable cost.
“Initially that came to in access of $US1.3 million ($F2.7 million), to remove that oil.
“It had to be removed, and we did that first up. We did not question the cost, we just gave in and did it. And even during the salvage they have not seen any oil spill at all, so she is empty.
“I would like to thank the Government, FPCL, MSAF, Biosecurity and Customs for their co-operation. It has been really a difficult thing.
“This is the first time this has really ever happened in Fiji in recent years, anything of this magnitude and I have to give credit to all those who participated, they have been really brilliant.”
Mr Douglas added they are now preparing for the second phase and that is the removal of the ship from the harbour.
“After cargo removal, the vessel will then be prepared for final sinking and to do that they will take the vessel which is lying 70 degrees on its portside, they will cut off a few things underwater, they will be removed.
“Then they will cut out the super structure probably two or three pieces. And that will be dumped and then they will roll the vessel over upside down and they will stabilise the vessel with air and will prepare it to be towed for its fi nal sinking outside
the Suva Harbour.”
