A major responsibility for the company Koole Contractors from Vijfhuizen: the maritime service provider is going to salvage a stranded oil tanker off the coast of Gibraltar. The contract with the owner has now been signed. Once the pontoons and tugs have arrived in the Mediterranean, the monster job can begin.
After the tanker collided with a gas tanker on August 29 and stranded off the east coast of the peninsula (see exact location map below), oil briefly leaked from the ship. The fear of a gigantic environmental disaster was great, but the leak was quickly closed.
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A small part of the oil ended up in the sea or reached the beaches. That has now been cleared up, but the ship is still in the way and still has oil on board. And because a larger environmental disaster must be prevented, Gibraltar has ordered the ship’s owner to have it salvaged quickly.
Hazardous substances for humans and the environment
To this end, the owner has set his sights on Koole Contractors, a company that specializes in demolition and salvage work, particularly for shipwrecks. The company also has sufficient experience with hazardous substances for people and the environment, according to the website.
“The tanker is sawn in half in a place where the oil reservoirs are avoided”
But do they often do such large and complicated jobs? Unfortunately, the company has agreed with the owner and Gibraltar not to give interviews, says the spokesperson. For more information, we are referred to a press release from the Gibraltar government.
In it, the harbor master of the Gibraltar port says that with the use of Koole ‘the strictest measures are being complied with to protect the environment’. The Gibraltar public broadcaster has previously mapped out what that operation will look like. “The tanker is sawn in half, in a place where the oil reservoirs are avoided.”
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From the accompanying news item it turns out that the job must be completed no later than May 30 next year.
Sources around the company on Vijfhuizerdijk let NH News know that it is likely that the company will go to Gibraltar with a delegation of several dozen employees, some of whom live in Vijfhuizen or Haarlemmermeer.