UPDATE: MT Seychelles Patriot Refloated

Grounded MT Seychelles Patriot Still Stuck

After over a week aground in the middle of the Amazon River, MT Seychelles Patriot was successfully re-floated on Friday morning, 17th of October.

The re-floating exercise began on the arrival of appropriate powered tug boats and was completed three hours later when the vessel was maneuvered off the mud banks on which it had been grounded,  the vessel’s owner Seychelles Petroleum said in a release.

“As per the norms in a situation such as this, the vessel 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,” the company said on Friday.

Several attempts had been made earlier to free the product tanker, but none of them was successful.

The ship was en route for Manaus City to unload a cargo from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil and had two Brazilian pilots on-board, as required by the Brazilian Maritime Authority when it ran aground on October 8th.

Seychelles Petroleum Company Ltd engages in fuel storage and transshipment activities. SEYPEC has a fleet of six tankers, comprising of five Handy and Handymax tankers trading internationally – The Seychelles Pride, Seychelles Pioneer, Seychelles Progress, Seychelles Prelude and Seychelles Patriot. In addition, a smaller product and LPG tanker, Seychelles Paradise, trades regionally and is used for domestic supply.

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World Maritime News Staff, Image: Seychelles Petroleum