OSR drills at Petersburg Oil Terminal (photo release)
Petersburg Oil Terminal (POT) based in Big Port Saint-Petersburg today conducted successful exercises for oil spill response in the waters of Port of St. Petersburg, at Berth POT-3, the PortNews correspondent reports.
According to the drills scenario, on August 21, the 1,500dwt tanker Pegasus took fire while loading of M-40 fuel oil onto the ship at Berth № PNT-3/2 (Berths POT-1,2,3 and 4 are operated by CJSC POT / PNT). The tanker was moored starboard side to the pier, with oil containment booms deployed alongside the tanker. The incident occurred at 10.40 and 10 minutes later, the tanker master reported an explosion of oil vapor and the partial destruction of the hull. As a result, at least 500 tons of heated fuel oil from the damaged tanks spilled into water over the booms.
The local Emergency Committee has set to work, assessing the situation. According to the scenario, the oil slick was drifting toward the mouth of the Krasnenkaya River, and there was a threat of pollution of the coastline of Krasnoselsky district of St. Petersburg.
The FSUE Baltic BASU, a local emergency response organization has promptly dispatched to the scene oil-boom workboats, skimmers, booms kits and sorbents. The OSR team deployed additional booms to prevent the slick spreading.
The oil spill response team’s major efforts were focused on stopping the oil outflow from the damaged hull, localization of the slick, on collection of oily debris, on prevention of pollution of the coastline.