Philippines battles to contain oil spill as tanker sinks, leaving one dead

A tanker carrying 1.4 million liters of industrial fuel capsized off the coast of Philippines, leading to one casualty and a vast oil spill, local authorities said Thursday.

The Philippine-flagged MT Terra Nova submerged 3.6 nautical miles east off Limay, Bataan at 1:10 a.m. Philippine time, the country’s Cost Guard said in a statement.

The vessel had departed Limay and was bound for fellow Philippines’ port of Iloilo, according to data from MarineTraffic.com.

CG Rear Admiral Armando Balilo said 16 of the 17 crew members on board have been rescued, with four staff of this tally now receiving further medical attention. Authorities later confirmed the body of the missing crew member was located, in a later update.

The Coast Guard said it is now addressing the oil spill and intends to finish siphoning the fuel from the sunken tanker to prevent further spreading within seven days. Three 44-meter multi-role response vessels have been deployed as part of the action.

“These vessels will start the application of oil dispersants to immediately mitigate impact, especially during the period where siphoning is being prepared,” the Coast Guard’s CG Admiral Gavan explained, as the Coast Guard coordinates its initiative with several Oil Spill Response Organizations.

“The vessel sunk 34 meters deep which is considerably shallow. Siphoning will not be very technical and can be done quickly to protect the vicinity waters of Bataan and Manila Bay against environmental, social, economic, financial, and political impacts,” Balilo said.

The Philippine Coast Guard Aviation Command separately alerted that it had deployed air assets on a search-and-rescue mission to the sunken tanker.

The incident comes amid a deluge of rain and heavy winds as Typhoon Gaemi — known in the Philippines as Carina — and the seasonal torrential monsoon battered and flooded Manila and its estimated population of nearly 15 million. Gaemi made landfall on the east coast of Taiwan causing severe flooding in the capital of the Philippines, and prompting the Metro Manila Council to declare a state of calamity in the city.

More than 94,000 people were displaced as a result of flooding in the national capital region (NCR) as of 10 p.m. local time on Tuesday, officials said during a briefing with Philippines President Bongbong Marcos.

The Coast Guard’s Balilo said that there was no Public Storm Warning Signal raised over Bataan when MT Terra Nova departed Limay, and that the vessel therefore “did not violate rules and regulations pertinent to the movement of vessels during heavy weather.”

The Philippines experienced one of its most severe oil spills — which are typically highly destructive to maritime environments, as well as challenging and costly to clear — back in late February 2023. The Philippines-flagged tanker MT Princess Empress suffered engine troubles in rough seas and sank with its load of 800,000 litres of industrial fuel oil off the central Oriental Mindoro province.