The hull of the stricken Braer oil tanker broke into three sections Jan. 12, a week after the ship ran aground on the Shetland Islands while carrying 607,000 bbl of crude oil from Norway to Canada (OGJ, Jan. 11, p. 26).
Salvor Smit International, Rotterdam, said Jan. 13 it could still not estimate how much of the cargo remained on board, but it expected to find only a small amount intact.
Rough weather throughout the week prevented salvage crews from working and rendered the dispersant spraying aircraft and oil containment booms of the cleanup teams largely ineffective. Winds gusted to 100 mph Jan. 12.
The tanker' powerless and pounded on shoreline rocks by high winds and heavy seas, spilled crude produced in Gullfaks field off Norway. Oil & Gas journal files show Gullfaks oil is much lighter than Alaska North Slope crude spilled by the Exxon Valdez tanker in 1989. But Gullfaks oil is among the heaviest produced in the North Sea.
WHAT'S NEXT
Smit proposed a change of approach to pumping out the remaining oil. This would involve "hot tapping" the oil underwater into a barge moored either alongside the wreckage or around the headland in the relative calm of Quendale Bay.
Hot tapping requires divers to bore into the hull and connect pipes to enable pumping to the barge. First, though, the divers have to be able to inspect the hull, and this requires a spell of good weather. Another calm spell would then be needed for the hot tapping to take place.
Smit expected to conduct an inspection Jan. 15 at the earliest, in view of the gloomy weather forecasts.
The U.K. Department of Transport (DOT) announced Jan. 11 it is to consider a second inquiry into the Braer accident, which will consider tightening of regulations on oil tanker movements around the U.K. coast. DOT has already started to investigate the cause of Braer's grounding.
DOT said oil spouted from the wreckage the night of Jan. 11, indicating the tanks were rupturing. But the oil that spilled overnight had largely dispersed by morning.
Reports quoted by DOT said a rainbow sheen of oil had been sighted 25 miles up the western coast of the Shetland Islands.
A spokesman said the ship might have broken into four sections, and the stem was moving independently of the funnel. He said remaining bunker oil could be a problem. A patch of thick oil had been seen near the vessel as it broke up, but nobody knew how much was leaked.
Chemical spraying was discontinued. Two aircraft from DOT's Marine Pollution Control Unit remained at Inverness, Scotland, for reconnaissance, while the remaining four were flown back to their base at Coventry on Jan. 13.
INSURANCE
Under U.K. law, which accords with the 1969 Civil Liability Convention (CLC), the liability limit for owners of the Braer could be $8 million for pollution damage, including cleanup costs.
Further compensation for spill victims could also be available from the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund, established in 1971, so that $82 million could be available in all.
The limits of the 1969 CLC and 1971 Fund Conventions were reviewed at a recent diplomatic conference in London, which agreed to increase levels of compensation (OGJ, Dec. 14, 1992, p.24).
John Layton, director of the marine division of Sedgwick Marine & Cargo Ltd., London, explained that tanker insurers that subscribe to reinsurance through Protection and Indemnity Clubs may not be discouraged by the two recent oil spills by the Braer off the Shetlands and Aegean Sea off Northwest Spain.
He said, "The vast majority of the world's merchant marine is entered in P&I clubs, many of which collectively purchase a reinsurance contract that renews Feb. 20 each year. It is understood that the leading reinsurers have confirmed terms for renewal already negotiated, notwithstanding the Braer and Aegean Sea incidents."
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