- Location: Gibraltar
- Impact: Marine Hull Exposure
- Issued by Skytek: at 12:00 GMT on September 05th, 2022
Update Summary:
On the late evening of August 29th, 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 04th, 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 22nd, in Figure 3.
The cargo extraction process commenced on January 20th, 2023, starting with the initial loads being removed from the third Cargo Hold.
The Gibraltar government set a deadline of May 31st, 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 |
Table 1 – OS 35, vessel particulars table
