The Statoil-owned multipurpose shuttle tanker MST Odin will participate in efforts to recover oil from the Prestige, the tanker which sank off Spain in the autumn of 2002.
The authorities in Spain have commissioned Spanish oil company Repsol YPF to empty the Prestige.
This work has been contracted out to Saipem’s Sonsub subsidiary, which has chartered Odin to hold the recovered oil.
The job of emptying the wreck, which lies in 3 850 metres of water, is due to begin in May and to be completed during the summer.
Statoil is pleased to help avert even greater damage to the environment along the Spanish coast, reports Jostein Ravndal, vice president for Statoil’s industrial development unit.
Odin will be taking part in a complex operation headed by Repsol, which involves sinking large containers from the ship down to the wreck and filling them with oil.
These containers will then be raised to a depth immediately below Odin and connected to pumps and hoses for transferring the oil to the latter vessel.
Large containers will be lowered from Odin to the wreck and filled with oil.
Running initially for two months, the charter contains options for a further two. One month is also allowed each side of the job for mobilisation and demobilisation.
Statoil has already contributed to the Prestige clean-up by lending specialised equipment and providing advice on how the oil should be recovered.
“We’re very gratified to have secured this job for Odin,” says Mr Ravndal. “We believe this vessel is very suitable for the work to be carried out.
“In addition to providing our ship, we’ve also been a good partner in discussions on how to carry out the work and to handle the fuel from Prestige on Odin.”
Odin is now being readied in Stavanger before it begins the Spanish assignment.