Spain Settles On Oil Cleanup Plan

The Spanish government on Friday announced plans to extract tons of fuel oil trapped 13,000 feet underwater in the wreck of the tanker Prestige, which sank more than a year ago off Spain's northwestern coast.

The Spanish multinational company Repsol-YPF will be hired to remove 13,000 tons (3.5 million gallons) of oil, a task that is expected to start in the spring and run until next September. The total cost, including pilot studies, will amount to about euro99.3 million (US$ 122 million), government spokesman Eduardo Zaplana said.

According to the plan, submarine robots will drill holes into the hull of the tanker, allowing the fuel oil to pour into aluminum shuttles designed to withstand high underwater pressure.

Once filled, the metal containers, capable of holding up to 300 cubic meters (300,000 liters or 79,275 gallons) of fuel oil, will be raised to within 40 meters (yards) of the water's surface. There, a flexible pipe will be inserted and the fuel suctioned into a ship, Repsol-YPF said.

"We've done countless tests over months to make sure this is a safe method that won't cause any more damage to the environment. There is very little risk of any of the oil escaping," said a Repsol spokeswoman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

The method was adopted in favor of an alternative plan to cover the tanker with reinforced concrete and later extract the fuel oil. The Spanish government scrapped that plan, reasoning it would be even more costly and take a year longer to complete.

The tanker Prestige ruptured on Nov. 13, 2002, off northwestern Spain and disgorged most of its 77,000 tons (20.5 million gallons or 77.6 million liters) of fuel oil onto the beaches of northern Spain and southwestern France.