KARACHI, Dec 16 The Gwadar Port Authority (GPA) managed to salvage the grounded vessel JPO Delphinus early on Wednesday morning with the help of a high-powered tug-boat which reached from Dubai, official sources said.

The vessel, coming from Ukraine with a load of urea fertiliser on Tuesday last (Dec 8, 2009), ran aground near South 4 buoy after it drifted from its actual course.

Port and shipping experts said that a major environmental catastrophe was averted by safely salvaging the vessel, loaded with 51,027 tons of urea.

There could have been a major disaster in case the vessel was not salvaged safely because fertiliser being a chemical could have caused major damage to aqua life for years to come, they added.

The sources said that US “TNT Basso” salvaging company was given the task to safely pull the grounded vessel.

The company hired high-powered tug-boat “Bricol” with 130 tons bollard pull from Dubai and managed to pull the grounded vessel at 1am on Wednesday.

After the vessel was salvaged, it was toed to outer anchorage, sources said, for underwater assessment and a survey in case any damage was caused to it by the incident.

Sources said that estimated cost of loaded cargo of urea in the vessel is $16 million because per ton cost is around $285 and load was of 51,000 tons.

The vessel is having 12.1 metre draft whereas port with 14 metre draft is capable of larger vessels of post-Panamax generation.

At the time of grounding of the vessel, the GPA carried out under-water survey and also assessed the draft.

Sources said that there was no apparent damage to the vessel and the port's draft was also accurate and as per declared draft.

The last port of vessel was Yuzhny, Ukraine, and it is fairly new vessel of 2009.

Responding to a question, the GPA authorities told Dawn that the claim and cost of salvaging vessel is highly complicated and a technical matter and it would be taken up by the PNI Club agents to sort out the issue.

However, presently underwater survey is being carried out to evaluate possible damage caused by the incident and once it is cleared, the vessel will be given berth to unload its cargo.

Initially, the sources said that it was planned to carry out the salvage work on Dec 17 after carrying lighterage of the vessel as tide is expected to be much high, but Wednesday's attempt produced results and saved precious time which means a lot in terms of cost in marine operations.