KARACHI, March 1: The international salvagers on Monday managed to get the submerged main deck of broken oil tanker Tasman Spirit six meter above the water surface near the Karachi Port Trust channel, maritime sources said.

Maintaining that the drill of lifting and refloating the aft section of the ship, weighing about 10,000 tonnes, was a challenging task, a source said that the rear portion showed signs of floating on early Monday morning, which was a significant achievement on the part of salvagers.

The portion is now in a stable position, while substantial damage was evident on starboard side, added the source, saying any final lifting of the portion, which was still in contact with sea bed, could take three or more days.

The oil tanker carrying a load of about 67,500 tonnes of crude oil had run aground near the KPT channel on July 27 last, and subsequently broke into two portion, while discharging about 31,000 tonnes of cargo oil into the sea till the end of August.

In response to their invitation to tender for purchase of the aft section of ship wreck, the representatives of Tasman Spirit had already received over 15 bids, which would be opened after Ashura holidays, another source said.

The forward section of the ship, sold for Rs24mn, has already been shifted to Gadani for breaking and dismantling. The local buyers, however, had not started hammering on it as they wanted to place it further close to their breaking-plot, it was learnt further.

In the case of the rear or aft portion of the ship, salvagers were optimistic that on arrival at Gadani beach, the section would have a maximum draught of 12m, which meant that the section could be beached about 2.5 km from the shore, the sources said.

The manager of the wreck-removal operation team, Captain Nicholas Sloane, told Dawn on Monday night that efforts were being made to pull up the submerged aft portion wreck at least by 10 meter.

Our divers were continuing inspection to ascertain extent of the damage done to the bottom plating and side-shell of the section, he said, so that necessary measures could be taken before the final lifting of the wreck and its towing to Gadani for final scraping.

Talking about the work on the leftover section of Tasman Spirit in the KPT premises, Capt Sloane said that refloating operation started with the introduction of compressed air into damaged tanks, while the sheer-legs crane stabilized the shipwreck, whilst she came out of the sea bed.

He maintained that measures were also being ensured for a cleaner sea and pollution-free environment. A "sheen" of oil sludge had taken place, but it was all manageable, he added.

While salvagers are optimistic about accomplishment of the refloating and towing operation before the commencement of monsoon, a maritime expert referred to the draught size and viewed that placement of the portion in question for breaking purposes at Gadani would surely be a tough job.