Transport Malta continued its investigations into the grounding and subsequent hull failure of the Malta-registered Oliva, on Nightingale Island in the South Atlantic Ocean on March 16.

Officials from Transport Malta’s Merchant Shipping Directorate are carefully examining the situation as it evolves.

Transport Malta is also liaising closely and directly with the owners and managers of the vessel and is being informed regularly and frequently on the salvage operation.

The salvage tug Smit Amandla, which is contracted by the ship owners, left Cape Town several hours after the accident and managers have confirmed that she arrived on the scene on March 21.

The salvage tug is carrying oil spill clean-up equipment and has a salvage team of 10 persons, including a salvage master, an environmental scientist, a naval architect and five divers.

Reports received by Transport Malta indicate that a sheen of fine lubricating oil was observed on the surface, with some evidence of fuel oil coming out from either section.

The Malta-registered bulk carrier Oliva, which was built in 2009, was carrying some 65,000 metric tonnes of soya beans at the time of the accident.

She had about 1,400 metric tonnes of fuel oil in her bunker, settling, and service tanks.

No injuries have been reported and all 22 crew members on board the vessel are safe on the main island of Tristan da Cunha.