Tasman Spirit
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The Tasman Spirit was a 1979 built crude oil tanker that ran aground off Karachi on July 28, 2003. The ship broke in two and caused the largest oil spill off the coast of Pakistan to date. The salvage company Smit lifted the ship, which was then scrapped.
history
1979 to 2003
The ship was built in 1979 as hull number 265 by the Japanese shipyard Onomichi Zosen Kabushiki Kaisha and put into service as Kenko Maru . In the course of its operating life it was sold several times and was successively named Kenko , Mabini , Tasman Spirit , Hyperion , Hemingway . Since June 1998 the ship has been owned by Assimina Maritime in Piraeus and operated by the Pelembros Shipping company based at the same address. On July 1, 1998, the shipping company named the ship again under the name Tasman Spirit , under which it was in service until it ran aground.
Stranding and first measures
The Tasman Spirit was chartered by the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation in 2003 to transport 67,532 tons of Iranian Light Crude from batch for further processing by the Pakistan Refinery Limited in Karachi. In addition, there were around 440 tons of heavy oil in the bunker tanks. On July 27, 2003 at around 1.35 am local time, the ship ran aground in front of the port of Karachi at position 24º47'.4N; 066º59'.35E. An initial investigation revealed that the majority of the cargo tanks had suffered leaks as a result of the damage to the bottom of the ship, while the bunker tanks remained intact. The crew was arrested by the Pakistani government for three months and the captain of the ship was imprisoned for five months. In the weeks after the accident, the ship owner had around half of the oil still in the ship and most of the bunkered heavy oil lightened with smaller tankers and tank barges. From August 8 to 10, two large batches of crude oil totaling 13,000 tons had been pumped from the ship.
Breaking the ship and oil leaks
The ship, which was sitting aground, was exposed to the rough swell of the prevailing southwest monsoon during the period after it was stranded . After further structural damage to the hull became apparent on August 11, the tanker finally broke in two on the evening of August 13, releasing large amounts of crude oil for the first time. By August 18, several thousand tons of oil had already leaked. After other parts of the ship's structure collapsed on August 22nd, one to two hundred tons of oil leaked out of the ship. Further oil spills took place on August 29 and September 4.
The recovery
The salvage of the wreck of the Tasman Spirit , which took several months , was carried out by the salvage company Smit . In December 2003, Smit received the order from the insurer The American Club , the shipowner's P&I club , to pump out the amount of oil remaining in the wreck and to lift and remove the wreck lying in the fairway using Lloyd's Open Form as a basis .
The foredeck showed the greater structural damage - over 90 percent of the ship's bottom plating was destroyed or missing - but the tanker's stern also suffered major damage to the bottom and starboard side plating as well as the bulkheads and longitudinal members.
On February 10, 2004, shortly before the forecastle was to be lifted and taken to Gadani for scrapping , the salvage work was temporarily interrupted because the Pakistani customs authorities imposed 46% duty (about 14 million US dollars) on the equipment brought for salvage is an uncommon practice for recoveries of this magnitude. After finally all bureaucratic hurdles had been overcome, the forecastle was first raised and brought to Gadani; this was followed by the lifting and removal of the stern.
Fight against oil and its consequences
In total, at least 35,000 tonnes of oil and most of the bunker oil were recovered from the distressed vessel. Estimates of the amount of oil released by the Tasman Spirit range from 12,000 to 30,000 tons. Most of it, several thousand tons of oil, was washed into the sea after the Tasman Spirit broke up on the night of August 13th to 14th. First, the oil was washed ashore in Clifton Beach, Karachi's main tourist beach. Large amounts of oil in particular drifted from the ship's area to the port of Karachi with each of the strong local tides. The pollution spread over a radius of about ten nautical miles around the wrecked ship. As a first measure, solvents from Hercules C-130 aircraft were applied with the so-called aerial dispersant spraying system (ADDS Pack). A short time later, the port authorities gave the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency permission to apply further solvents on a large scale. KPT also used its own vehicles for this. A total of around 140 tonnes of oil were collected in the port of Karachi.
On the most heavily polluted Clifton Beach in particular, high levels of oil components were measured in the ambient air, which led to a series of treatments for the population involved and school closings for up to a week. The beach was later cleaned manually and using technical equipment, whereby the lack of suitable collecting containers delayed the work. Based on an agreement with the local authorities, a public dump in Karachi City has been designated for the disposal of the oil residues. Clifton Beach was opened to the public again in mid-October.
The Iranian Light Crude Oil was strongly mixed in the torn open tanks of the damaged ship by the collapsing swell and in this way largely dissolved in the sea water. Subsequent field studies showed little or no long-term damage to the mangroves, salt pans, and other high-risk areas of the polluted area.
Due to the pollution, the Marine Fisheries Department has issued a three-month fishing ban in the affected area. Few reports of permanent damage to the fishery were made in the aftermath of the proceedings.
One of the main reasons for the relatively low impact of the amount of oil that entered the sea from the Tasman Spirit is due to the properties of the Iranian light crude oil. It has a high proportion of volatile oils and weathered very quickly, especially under the given climatic conditions of Karachis.
Web links
- General report of the ITOPF (English)
- Report of ITOPF technical issues Summary (English)
- Report on ecological and economic consequences on Reliefweb (English)
- Side of the recovery company (English)