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US firm Resolve Marine Group, a salvage firm hired to remove fuel oil from the sunken bulk carrier Black Rose off Paradip harbour in Orissa, Northeast India, has successfully completed the job, according to Paradip Port Trust.

Florida-based Resolve Marine arrived at the port on October 18th and proceeded to carry out a preliminary survey.

On October 23rd, fuel oil from one of the storage tanks was retrieved and approximately 176 tonnes of fuel oil were reported to have been recovered from the ship towards the end of last month.

However, oil salvage work was then delayed when Customs authorities stopped Paradip Port Trust (PPT) from ransporting the pumped oil citing lack of clearance. Salvage work then came to a grinding halt as Resolve Marine lacked suffificent oil storage.

Customs department sources were said to have claimed that PPT was asked to submit documents and deposit the Customs duty on October 14th, but failure to do so resulted in clearance not being obtained.

Salvage work resumed on October 26th after PPT was given clearance to transport the pumped out oil via trucks.

The Mongolia-flagged Black Rose capsized in the Bay of Bengal on September 9th approximately 5 kilometres off the Paradip coast, whilst carrying around 975 tonnes of fuel oil and 25,000 tonnes of iron ore fines.