Stranded ship to float 'soon'

2005-06-24 13:48

Johannesburg - Attempts to refloat the bulk carrier Kiperousa, stranded off the Eastern Cape coast, would resume on Friday afternoon, the SA Maritime Authority (Samsa) said.

"Yesterday (on Thursday) we experienced technical problems so we couldn't pull her off, but that's been sorted out," said Samsa spokesperson Peter Kroon.

"We start pulling at about 16:00 this afternoon and we expect to have her off by 6pm."

On Thursday attempts to refloat the Kiperousa were put on hold as the salvage company, from Greece, was unable to guarantee it could pay to clean up any oil spill that might occur.

"The guarantee has been given by the company and so we are sure the refloating will happen today (on Friday)," said Kroon.

The department of environmental affairs and tourism confirmed receipt of a guarantee from the company.

"The department can confirm the salvage company has guaranteed any spillages after the refloating will be cleaned up," said department spokesperson Carol Moses.

She said the department's response team and an anti-pollution patrol vessel were monitoring the coastline for oil spillages daily.

"Our latest reports indicated there aren't any oil leakage at the moment," said Moses.

She said tugs continue to transfer dirty oil from the vessel and take it to East London, where it is pumped into railway tanker trucks at the quayside.

Ongoing attempts to refloat the Kiperousa — a 14 921-ton log-carrier which ran aground on a reef off Bhenga, south of Hamburg in the Eastern Cape, two weeks ago — have proved unsuccessful.

The Kiperousa was en route from Gabon to Durban to take on fuel oil.

- SAPA