Rena fuel removal slowed

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Air pockets in a submerged fuel tank on the damaged starboard side of a cargo vessel grounded off New Zealand's coast are preventing pumping, officials said.

As much as 2,000 barrels of oil leaked from the ship after it became grounded on a reef off the coast of New Zealand last month. Salvage teams are pumping water into a tank to get fuel out of the ship's starboard side, which has significant structural damage.

Jon Walker, an adviser to Maritime New Zealand, said air pockets trapped in the submerged tank are getting in the way of pumping the remaining 358 tons of heavy fuel oil off Rena.

"They keep starting it," he said in a statement regarding pumping operations. "They get a flow and then they find they are pumping air so they have to go back, open lines, vent air and reset everything."

Resetting the lines, he added, takes several hours and has become "extremely" frustrating.

Salvage teams were forced to abandon using an underwater seal around the submerged tank to help with fuel removal operations after high seas broke the dam.

Rough seas battered Rena last week, though MNZ said they haven't observed any deterioration in the integrity of the ship's hull.