According to Paulo Mariano, vice-president of the Figueira da Foz port community, the tugboat was hired on Monday night by the Dutch shipowner, who owns the vessel, and by the Altri group, which owns the 3,300 tons of paper pulp cargo on board.
In a statement, the National Maritime Authority (AMN) reported that the tugboat should arrive at Eikborg at 11 pm, saying that the cargo ship is 22 nautical miles (about 40 kilometres) off the Portuguese coast, accompanied by the ocean patrol vessel Figueira da Foz.
“The shipowner and the shipper managed to reach a successful agreement in negotiations with a Norwegian-flagged tugboat, which will presumably arrive at the location at 2 am on Wednesday [28 January],” said Paulo Mariano.
He added that the towing service will be “extremely complicated,” given the state of the sea, and will cost around €350,000 per day, to be borne by the shipowner – the Royal Wagenborg group, one of the largest European maritime transport companies – and the cargo owner, the Altri group.
“At this moment, they are already paying, the ship is already ready, although it has not yet arrived,” he affirmed.
Paulo Mariano further explained that the operation carried out by the Norwegian ocean tug, a 90-metre-long vessel, one meter longer than the cargo ship, “will take several days” and described it as “incredible” that “all” the national ports, “with the conditions to receive this ship under tow, refused the ship’s entry.”
“And the ship will have to be towed to a port in Spain, which I presume, I’m not sure yet, it also has to do with sea conditions, it will be in the bay of Vigo [in Galicia],” he revealed.
The Navy and AMN stated, in a press release, that “they continue to monitor and support the cargo ship that suffered a rudder failure” on Monday, as it left the Figueira da Foz harbour, and will do so with an ocean patrol vessel until towing operations begin.
The Eikborg has six crew members on board, all foreigners (the captain is Dutch, and there are also two Indonesians, one Latvian, one Russian, and one Filipino) and is carrying 3,300 tons of paper pulp (cargo originating from Celbi cellulose, part of the Altri group), which was destined for a German port.
