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Posted by on March 08, 2010 at 15:36:10:
THE Eitzen product tanker which had been grounded on the remote French Pacific island of Clipperton since February 10 was finally refloated on Saturday. The vessel’s managers, V.Ships Shipmanagement, said that the 2009-built, 25,431 dwt Sichem Osprey had been refloated at 2200 hrs on Saturday using its own main engine and the assistance of three tugs. The operation followed the lightering of 6,000 tonnes of soya bean oil and a quantity of xylene from the vessel last week. V.Ships said that the operation had been achieved without pollution and that all the cargo tanks of the double-hulled vessel had been found to be intact. The vessel, accompanied by lightering tanker, MT Glen, is making for a port still to be designated in Mexico, where its remaining cargo will be removed. It ran aground on Clipperton, a nine sq km atoll 1,280 km off the coast of Mexico, in as yet undetermined circumstances. The French judicial authorities have opened an investigation into suspected endangering of human life and breaches of the French merchant navy code.
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