Marine Casualty Advisory – Collision at Gibraltar – Update

Marine

Skytek
March 2, 2023
12:00 pm

Update Summary:

On the late evening of August 29^th, 2022, the laden Bulk Carrier OS 35 was leaving Gibraltar anchorage for a destination of Vlissengen, Netherlands, and shortly after, at 22:07 LT (20:07 UTC), it made contact on its starboard side with the bulbous bow of the anchored LNG tanker Adam LNG.

The OS 35 reported taking in water and, with the pilot onboard, was directed by the Port of Gibraltar to intentionally beach on the Eastside, near the Catalan Bay, at a 17m depth of water.

British Marine P&I Club, a QBE Europe SA/NV subsidiary, has appointed Resolve Marine Services (Gibraltar) Ltd as the salvors for the OS 35 vessel.

At the grounding time, the bulk carrier OS 35 had 215 tonnes of heavy fuel oil, 250 tonnes of diesel fuel and 27 tonnes of lube oil, which was removed from the aft tanks.

Divers’ inspection reportedly revealed a 10m by 4m gash on the starboard side of the OS 35 and an indication of hull rupture. By construction, bulk carriers have fuel tanks in the forward part, complicating the fuel removal process,

Subsequent to beaching, the ship’s hull ruptured, and bunker lines to forward tanks are captured in high-resolution imagery in Figure 2 on September 04^th, 2022 giving off fuel pollution around the ship.

Gibraltar government declared the collision a major incident, the port remaining closed for several days.

Due to severe weather during the winter months, the vessel became nearly submerged, as captured in the high-resolution satellite imagery of February 22^nd, in Figure 3.

The cargo extraction process commenced on January 20^th, 2023, starting with the initial loads being removed from the third Cargo Hold.

The Gibraltar government set a deadline of May 31^st, 2023 to appoint salvors, for the wreck removal.

At the time of the grounding, the Tuvalu flag Bulk Carrier OS35 was priced by Skytek at an estimated market value of $12,76m and is now listed as a total loss.

Skytek’s Situation Room platform lists the particulars of the ship involved in the incident:

Name	OS 35	Flag	Tuvalu
IMO number	9172399	P & I Club	British Marine
MMSI	572852210	Classification Society	Korean Register Of Shipping
Callsign	T2WU4	Group Owner	Oldstone Management Ltd
Ship type	Bulk Carrier	Ship Manager	Oldstone Management Ltd
Length	178m	Operator	Oldstone Management Ltd
Breadth	28m	Registered Owner	Oldstone Cargo Ltd
Draught	10.6 m (max 10.6)	Technical Manager	Oldstone Management Ltd
GT	20,947	Last Port	Sohar, Oman August 08th 2022
DWT	35,362	Destination	Vlissengen, Netherlands.
Date of Build	1999	Position	036°08’04.0”N 005°19’56.6”W