Rena cost climbs as oil sticks

The cost of the oil spill recovery from the leaking container ship grounded on the Astrolabe Reef is mounting with it close to $10 million – so far.

Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, Transport Minister Steven Joyce said it only a rough estimate is available, but felt confident the eight-digit mark was close.

'It's getting towards the $10 million mark for the oil spill response.”

This amount does not include costs related to the salvage of the ship as these would be fully met by the vessel's insurers, but do include costs related to the oil recovery.

These costs may also ultimately be paid for by Rena's insurers.

There is a huge manpower cost to the recovery effort, particularly in the beach clean-up and volunteer coordinator Pim de Monchy says their value is immense.

To date more than 3000 volunteers have collectively worked more than 8000 hours – equating to four years work for one full time employee.

Steven Joyce is calling on people from around the North Island to come forward and support Bay of Plenty residents in the clean-up this weekend and in those that follow.

'Come to the Bay for a bit of fun in the sun and some clean-up as well.”

The clean-up focus over the next few days is to collect the small globules of oil that nature is unearthing, with these seeping to the surface on the beaches.

People wishing to help in this clean-up are invited to meet for coordinated efforts starting at 10am on Friday (October 28) with rendezvous at Tay Street and Taylors Reserve.


A Svitzer salvage team member inspects the crack ripped through Rena's hull. Photo: Maritime New Zealand.

The last major spill from Rena was on Saturday when about 10 tonnes of oil is estimated to have leaked into the sea.

The salvage team has pumped 808 tonnes of oil off the ship, but pumping operations have stopped owing to a loss of suction and access problems.

The oil pumped from Rena is all from its port five fuel tank, but this has so little left in it there is not enough suction for pumping methods tried to transfer it to waiting barges.

There are still 228 tonnes of oil in Rena's settling tanks, 25 tonnes in a service tank and 358 tonnes in starboard five tank.

Salvage team member Captain Jon Walker says the work to get the oil pumping working again is difficult and dangerous.

One attempt made to get the pumping going involved dragging a large pump through three bays, each about 10m long, and then lowering it down a deck through a hole.

This all had to be done by hand and against the slope of the ship's 22 degree list and took the team eight hours.

Other problems for the salvage team involve changing water levels inside the ship, with some areas submerged during high tide, but at low tide they are dry.

The salvage operation's main goal is to pump all of the oil off the ship and Steven Joyce sympathises with the team.

'It's a bit of a frustrating time for the salvors as they were keen to keep pumping.”

Once the oil is removed from the ship, the next phase is the recovery of the 1280 containers still aboard the vessel.

Originally there were 1368, but 88 fell into the sea in a single night during a storm.

At today's press conference Steven Joyce gave a bleak forecast of how long the container recovery operation would take the salvage team.

'The number of containers we can get off that ship each day is in the single figures – it's going to take a long time.”

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4 comments

These guys have earned a Parade !

Posted on 28-10-2011 08:52 | By Zara

The guys involved in the oil recovery surely deserve recognition of a job well done when finished from the grateful people of Tauranga. Maybe our beloved councilers could spend our money on something no right minded ratepayer could possiby object to. Dont hold your breath........


We should thank volunteers

Posted on 28-10-2011 09:18 | By Gee Really

Thank goodness for the volunteers, the ones that were initially told to stay away. The money is obviously being gobbled up by the army of bureaucrats. Nobody's yet explained why fencing and security is required at the HQ or why bureaucrats need to wear those bright coloured safety vests. Just like the earthquake and other disasters I predict the costs will blow out and the government (our taxes) will end up paying for all this.


Volunteer to be ignored.

Posted on 28-10-2011 15:33 | By dgk

A few thousand volunteers which aren't part of the huge cost of manpower for the cleanup as the government is too cheap to even pay them minimum wage....


happy to help

Posted on 28-10-2011 18:01 | By traceybjammet

happy to volunteer, personal satisfaction and helping our beaches get well again is more important than the continuing gripping and whining about money its an accident that happened now lets make it better.


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