Hopes to resume oil pumping

Salvors are planning to re-board Rena today and resume pumping oil from the stricken cargo ship on Astrolabe Reef.

Three salvors will board Rena this morning to carry out a safety assessment of the vessel before further salvors can come aboard to reconnect the fuel transfer hose from Rena to the tanker Awanuia.

Rena grounded on Astrolabe Reef on Wednesday, October 19. See video below. (Supplied by Svitzer)

Pumping was halted on Monday, October 17 due to bad weather. This morning there is a swell of 2-3 metres and winds of 10 knots.

With poor weather yesterday preventing salvors from pumping oil off the vessel, teams spent the day preparing equipment, including generators, pumps and additional work platforms, in anticipation of being able to resume work today.

National On Scene Commander Ian Niblock says there have been no reports of fresh oil coming ashore overnight, but teams of responders are well prepared and ready to go should more land.

'However, more container debris is expected to come ashore over the coming days, and anyone finding this material is asked to please report it to Maritime New Zealand on 0800 645 774 (0800 OIL SPILL).

'It is important that trained salvage experts recover this material.”

Ian says forward planning will also continue today, with the Incident Command Centre continuing to extend its area of operations to cover the East Cape.

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