Grounded Bulk Carrier Could Be Stuck for Days Off Sweden

The Swedish Coast Guard and a industrial salvage crew are persevering with to reply to a bulk service onerous aground off the west coast of Sweden within the Kattegat.

The 46,000 DWT MV Victoria was carrying a cargo of wheat from Germany to Guinea, West Africa when it ran aground on a shoal late Saturday evening about 15 nautical miles from Varberg, Sweden. A dive inspection on Sunday revealed a 3 meter gash within the ship’s hull beneath the waterline.

As of Tuesday night, two Coast Guard vessels, a salvage tug and a tanker had been on scene to stabilize the ship and start eradicating gas oil. The Swedish Coast Guard stated that about 550,000 liters of gas situated in tanks close to the grounding level will have to be transferred to the tanker earlier than the majority service might be refloated.

Two further emergency response vessels are on standby and will reply within the occasion of an environmental emergency, though so far no air pollution has been reported.

One of the tugs reported some sideways motion from the Victoria within the wind and waves. Some video of the ship beneath reveals the climate circumstances salvors had been confronted with on Monday:

The Coast Guard estimates that the ship won’t be refloated till the top of this week on the earliest. The operation to take away the gas from the vessel is anticipated to take in the future however depends on the climate.

It was reported earlier that the Victoria was loaded with 1,000 cubic meters of heavy bunker gas and 200 cubic meters of diesel when the grounding occurred.