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Archive -Seychelles

MT Seychelles Patriot refloated |18 October 2014

MT Seychelles Patriot was successfully refloated during the morning of October 17 after running aground in the middle of the Amazon River in Brazil.

According to the Seychelles Petroleum Company (Seypec), the refloating exercise began on the arrival of appropriate powered tug boats and was completed three hours later when the vessel was manoeuvered off the mud banks on which it had been grounded.

The company adds that as per the norms in a situation such as this, the Seychelles-owned fuel tanker is now on the way to Port Santarem anchorage for inspections by the Classification Society, and is then expected to continue to its planned destination, Manaus City, Brazil.

No spillages of product or any injury to crew members have been recorded.

Built to high double hull structural specifications, the 46-tonne capacity vessel, which has been chartered by Brazilian Energy Company Petrobas, is said to have been transporting 29,000 tonnes of gasoil.

Seypec said earlier this week that the tanker had ran aground on shifting sand and mud banks on October 8, while sailing on its approved navigational route in the presence of the two Brazilian pilots onboard.

There were 18 crew members including eight Seychellois onboard the tanker at the time of the incident termed by Seypec as a “marine hazard incident”.

Two tugs were first sent to refloat the tanker but the operation did not start at all as one of the tugs had engine problem and the other had a gearbox problem, thus they did not have enough bollard power to salvage it.

There are five other vessels in the Seychelles’ fleet of tankers – MT Seychelles Pride, MT Seychelles Pioneer, MT Seychelles Progress, MT Seychelles Prelude and MT Seychelles Paradise.

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