By Gabriela Baron
Fingerprinting results of the collected oil samples from Oriental Mindoro matched the industrial oil from the sunken motor tanker (MT) Princess Empress, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) reported Monday, April 17.
The samples were sent to Cedre, a French agency composed of experts in accidental water pollution.
The samples were sent to France on April 4, while the official analysis report was turned over to PCG on April 14.
PCG noted that the said report indicated that the oil samples collected at sea in the direct vicinity of the sunken vessel “showed a positive match” to that of the samples collected from the shorelines of Pola, Oriental Mindoro, as well as the samples collected from the loading station.
According to Mikael Laurent of Cedre, they compared samples collected on the shorelines to two reference oils considered representative of the fuel onboard the sunken ship – first oil sample collected at sea in the direct vicinity of the wreck, and the second sample gathered from the tank of SL Harbor Bulk Terminal in Limay, Bataan where the vessel acquired its industrial fuel oil.
“All the samples were analyzed for oil spill identification using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) in Scan and SIM modes to examine different compounds,” PCG said.
Scan mode provides a general view of the sample’s patterns and is used as a screening method, while the SIM mode enables reliable comparisons based on various families of compounds, PCG explained.
“Results of the comparison showed that no significant difference could be demonstrated between the various samples,” PCG said.
“Additionally, the oil collected in the station where the tank of the ill-fated vessel was filled, represents the oil contained in the ship at the moment of the accident,” the agency added.
Meanwhile, the Japan Disaster Response Team also assisted in submitting oil samples for oil fingerprinting analysis by its Maritime Disaster Prevention Center (MDPC).
“The preliminary results of the dissimilarity analysis show similarities between the cargo oil and the oil collected in the coastal area,” MPDC noted, saying it will release the official report by end-April. – cf