Oil spillage avoided from grounded carrier

The threat of significant oil spillage from the bulk carrier Seli 1, aground off Cape Town since September 7, is over but imponderables remain over her future. Seen from a maritime safety perspective, no month is a good month for a calamity of such proportions, September being particularly inhospitable as heavy seas complicated the crucial pumping of fuel from the 29-year-old ship for several days. By the weekend, salvors Smit had removed 500 of the 600 tonnes of fuel, though a proactive precautionary oil pollution boom remains deployed at Milnerton Lagoon. Clare Gomes, Smit’s communications manager, told FTW “various methodologies” had been investigated for the removal of the 30 000-tonne cargo of coal, though the removal of fuel – a directive by the South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) – remains the priority. As to whether Seli 1 is going anywhere, anytime, Gomes says: “It would make sense to try and refloat her as opposed to a fairly complicated wreck removal.” The so-called “spat” between Green salvage company Tsavrilis, which claimed it had a signed contract with the vessel’s owners, as opposed to Smit’s verbal agreement between the masters of Seli 1 and the salvage tug, Smit Amandla, is over and done with. Gomes commented: “Arbitrators in London have ruled that Smit has a valid LOF (Lloyd’s Open Form).”