I would like to amplify on the feature about the Birzebbuġa fuel depot (May 19), particularly where it refers to the exercise that we had carried out and which is known as ‘bioslurping’.

During my time as chairman of Enemalta, we had engaged an Italian firm of environmental consultants which had carried out a hydrological and geological survey of the site using sophisticated scientific instruments.

The findings of this survey allowed us to identify pockets of underground oil deposits.

We had then drilled several boreholes over these locations and sucked up the oil using the ‘bioslurping’ process.

This is a process whereby the pipe that is inserted in the borehole to suck up the oil is kept touching the surface of the oil, rather than inserting it deep into the pool of oil. This is done to avoid bringing up the water on which the oil is floating rather than the oil itself.

The process is akin to slur-ping soup from the spoon, hence the name given to it.

We had recovered a considerable amount of oil and, as far as I know, we had removed all the oil from these identified pockets.

It was a very interesting exercise in remediation, the first of its kind in Malta.

It should, of course, be repeated as part of the dismantling of the site.