The salvage of the bulk carrier NS Qingdao, which has unstable chemical cargo, off South Africa’s west coast, is reaching a critical final stage.
As SAMSA informed, the volatility of the chemical cargo is being successfully contained so far, following the off-loading and dumping of some of the cargo at sea recently.
As a result, the bulk carrier is being brought into the port of Saldanha Bay for further offloading and final disposal of the rest of the cargo at an inland hazardous waste management site located at Visserhok.
The emergency (of the cargo vessel situation) has now been downscaled from a ‘severe maritime emergency’ to a salvage operation that can be safely managed in port
said SAMSA, adding that Transnet National Port Authority will provide a berth for the vessel and is comfortable that it safe for the vessel to enter the port.
Salvage experts have been working to contain and extinguish the fire onboard the vessel for the 3 months. Attempts to extinguish the fire by discharging the reactive cargo via skips offshore and dispose of the cargo at the High Hazardous Vissershok waste management site was affected by the location of the affected cargo within the cargo hold.
The vessel was escorted offshore by an Emergency Towing Vessel in early December after the fire unexpectedly re-ignited, causing a large volume of toxic fumes to be released and enter the engine room resulting in the evacuation of the engine room.
Due to the fast deteriorating conditions onboard and to save the ship and people onboard, the JOC decided to conduct an emergency dump of the absolute bare minimum of reactive cargo 250km offshore in 3000m of water in order to bring the situation under control as fast as possible.
Approximately 1300T of cargo was dumped offshore which enabled the situation to be brought back under control.
The operation was monitored through onboard drones and satellite imaging, with JOC confirming that no immediate environmental damage was observed.
The hot cargo cooled rapidly and dissolved very quickly in the ocean. Although no immediate environmental damage was noticed, SAMSA and the DFFE are in discussions with the vessel owner and insurers to arrange a medium to long term environmental monitoring program
The cause of the incident is still under investigation and a chemical analysis of the cargo will be completed while the vessel is in port to determine the underlying casual factors for the fire and whether the vessel had any undeclared cargo in the hold.
