• May 05, 2021
• News, Oil & Gas, Salvage, Shipping

Written by Nick Blenkey

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Salvage operations on the capsized lift boat SEACOR Power have gotten underway. Among the assets deployed is another SEACOR lift boat, the SEACOR Eagle. It is staged with gear near capsized vessel approximately seven miles off Port Fourchon, La., and is being used as stable platform to assist in salvage and pollution response operations.

Salvage crews are using a method called hot tapping, which allows for drilling into the fuel tanks and making a hose connection without compromising the integrity of the tank or causing pollution impacts.

Divers are performing this process above and below the water, connected to an air hose, and the Coast Guard says that it is imperative mariners respect the one-mile safety zone around the site.

“Weather is key to a safe evolution,” says the Coast Guard, “and if weather conditions exceed approximately 15 mph winds, four-foot seas, and the current is faster than 1.25 mph, work will cease until there are safer conditions.”

Six crew members were lost in the capsize of the SEACOR Power, six were rescued and seven are still missing.

Contracted salvage divers transport hose to SEACOR Power to remove the fuel out of an above ground fuel tank, May 3, 2021, off Port Fourchon, Louisiana. Good weather conditions are imperative for diver safety and smooth, steady operations. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Brendan Freeman)