Rokia Delmas

The incident

On 24 October 2006, the container ship Rokia Delmas (600 tonnes of heavy fuel oil, 300 containers of cocoa beans) ran aground on Ré island (Charente-Maritime) after an engine failure during a storm. Althoughno major pollution was noted, a 20 m-long breach in the hull made towing impossible.

Spill response and crisis management

• Formal notice to the charterer on 24 October 2006
• Polmar Land Plan activated in Charente-Maritime
• 1^st investigations noted a breach which made it impossible to refloat the vessel. The decision was taken to cut the wreck on site.
• The land prefecture decided to set up booms to protect the oyster farms.
• Pumping: From the oil floating in the hull of the vessel, 430 m³ of fuel was recovered (mostly between 27 October and 3 November)
• A drift committee was placed on pre-alert in La Rochelle
• Risk assessment regarding cargo: experimentations on cocoa beans (risk of floatability and release of hydrogen sulfide in an anaerobic environment)

Treatment and lightering of the wreck

• Phase 1: Unloading and removal of the containers (ended in September).
• Phase 2: Transverse cutting of the hull into 5 sections.
• Phase 3: Towing of the different sections towards the port of La Rochelle and treatment of residual debris (ended on 18 December).
• Suppression of the formal notice to the charterer and end of the maritime work for the removal of the Rokia Delmas on 19 December
• Treatment continued on land

Conclusions and Developments

• The feedback process, initiated by the Maritime prefect for the Atlantic and involving all stakeholders provided various information :
• The need for a precise definition of responsibilities for the various stakeholders, namely regarding the land-sea interface management.
• The difficulty or impossibility to protect exposed sensitive areas highlighted the need for a defined boom use policy, accompanied by a clear definition of the role of ports in this kind of situations.
• Experiments on the cargo and analyses of the propulsion fuel were necessary to understand the behaviour of these elements and assess the risks they posed.
• Cost and duration: 14 months of operations, complex cutting operations in a coastal tourist area.
• To find out more: Read about similar cases (ex.: Fénès, Tricolor, Melbridge Bilbao)