DBL 152

Gulf of Mexico | Mexico

The double-hull tank barge DBL-152 capsized and sank about 35 miles off the coast of Texas after colliding with a submerged oil rig. Resolve Marine assumed full responsibility of project management, mobilizing heavy equipment, divers, logistical support, and salvage personnel to stabilize and remove over five million gallons of fuel oil from the vessel casualty. 

Resolve Marine divers addressed leakage points on the sunken barge and oil removal operations involved installing hydraulic submersible pumps beneath the sunken barge. Liightering barges were then positioned to receive the recovered oil. Despite challenging weather conditions, the barge was successfully anchored and refloated upside down during the lightering process.

After completing the lightering phase, Resolve Marine towed the capsized vessel from the offshore casualty site in Texas to Mobile, Alabama. A comprehensive cleaning operation was initiated in preparation for scrapping. Cleaning the upside-down vessel was a significant undertaking, involving various techniques, such as using an intrinsically safe high-pressure water cutting machine to access cargo tanks via the hull bottom and inner bottoms.

Removing the thick, heavy black oil from the entire barge, including its piping, was a major project requiring substantial manpower and meticulous planning. Additionally, Resolve Marine extracted and recovered the large machinery house from the barge to reduce its floating draft, with divers employing underwater cutting techniques for this demanding task.