[petron-solar 1] disaster around the corner, surmise japanese

A minisubmarine inspecting the wreck of the Solar 1 on Friday found an open oil compartment and another one leaking small quantities of oil.Capt. Luis Tuason, district commander of the Coast Guard in Western Visayas, said the remote-operated vehicle (ROV) sent down by the Japanese survey ship Shinsei Maru saw that the hatch of the fourth compartment was open. The compartment is on the port (left) side of the sunken oil tanker.The compartment could have already leaked 275,665 liters of oil. Another compartment on the port side was found broken and leaking small quantities of oil. The compartment could hold about 275,000 liters of oil.

The remote-operated vehicle will continue probing the surface and parts of the sunken tanker until Saturday.Rolando Salonga, Petron’s distribution officer, who was responsible for chartering Solar 1, said it was the first time Petron had hired a vessel from Sunshine Maritime Development and that the ship was checked out for soundness even before the bunker fuel was loaded.He could not explain, however, how the expired license of Capt. Norberto F. Arguro was overlooked.

For latest developments in Japanese news itself, check the British voice from Japan who reports, from those fair isles:The big news item in Japan is of course that Takafumi Horie pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to falsify the firm’s earnings in 2004.Oil and Gas, ABS-CNN