Oil extraction
Whittaker have three different methods of oil extraction from sunken vessels - the drill/cofferdam system, the bolted flange collection or the swage-o-let tool. The first two methods are primarily for diver operation and control whereas the swage-o-let is designed to be operated by ROV.
Blucher WWII Battleship
The MV Blücher was a German cruiser sunk in Oslo Fjord in the early part of World War 2. The Blücher was fully fuelled up when sunk, this oil was threatening the beaches and coastline around Oslo.
Whittaker Engineering designed and built 5 outertank drills and 2 innertank drills for the project.
The main drilling contractor was Rockwater who successfully removed all the oil from the wreck without spillage and with Norwegian government supervision and approval.
MV Erika
The MV Erika was an oil tanker which broke up in the Bay of Biscay in 1999.
Whittaker Engineering was asked to design and build a system for bolting the 200mm Ĝ flanges to the hull of the vessel. The flange was then drilled through using a hot tapping machine in order to extract the oil.
The main contractors on this project were Coflexip Stena and Stolt Comex. The oil was successfully removed by the autumn of 2000.
SS Luckenbach
The S.S. Jacob Luckenbach was a World War II liberty ship and it sunk off the west coast of America. The remaining oil, left in her holds, posed a threat to the beaches of California. The oil was successfully removed with the help of our tooling.
MV Prestige
Underwater drill mobilised for preliminary drilling work on the hull of the MV Prestige which sunk in 4000m of water off the Spanish Galician coast - November 2002.