MT Seychelles Patriot has clocked up over a week aground in the middle of the Amazon River where it got stuck in shifting sand and mud banks on October 8th.
Several attempts have been made to free the product tanker, but none of them was successful.
The ship was en route for Manaus City to unload a cargo from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil and had two Brazilian pilots on-board, as required by the Brazilian Maritime Authority.
“The vessel remains in an uncritical state with respect to its structural integrity as assessed and confirmed by the classification society. No spillages of product or any injury to crew members have been recorded. It is to be noted that the vessel is built to high double hull structural specifications,” the vessel’s owner Seychelles Petroleum said in a release Tuesday.
According to the owner, an initial attempt to re-float the vessel under her own steam was undertaken on the same day, however the attempt was unsuccessful. Coordinated by German Tanker Shipping GmbH, the salvage operation was put through its first phase by contacting a salvage specialist company, SMIT of Netherlands, who flew two salvage experts from Netherlands on Sunday the 12th of October.
A salvage plan was developed by Monday morning, approved by the classification society, the Santarem Port Authority and the insurance company.
The salvage experts arrived onboard the Seychelles Patriot on Monday morning. Also present were two representatives from the insurance company and representatives from the Classification society, Germanischer Lloyd, who hold responsibility for safeguarding the structural integrity of the vessel.
The second re-floating was attempted on the 13th October 2014 at 18:00 hrs LT, (01:00 hours Seychelles time) following the arrival of the two tug boats by mid-day, all with the approval of the Brazilian Maritime Authority.
“Unfortunately, the exercise was later stopped by the on-site team as the two tugs were found to be too small in size, and developed mechanical failures which caused reduced bollard pull.
At this stage an extra tug is being chartered from the neighboring port of Santarem to aid the salvage operation, while the mechanical failures are being repaired on the two tugs previously chartered. Another re-floating attempt is planned for this evening,” the company added.
Seychelles Petroleum Company Ltd engages in fuel storage and transshipment activities. SEYPEC has a fleet of six tankers, comprising of five Handy and Handymax tankers trading internationally – The Seychelles Pride, Seychelles Pioneer, Seychelles Progress, Seychelles Prelude and Seychelles Patriot. In addition, a smaller product and LPG tanker, Seychelles Paradise, trades regionally and is used for domestic supply.
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