Rena report looks at global solution

ONGOING: The debate about Rena wreck removal continues. PHOTO/FILE

If full Rena wreck removal was put out to international tender then other solutions could be found which would prove less costly, according to a series of independent consultant reports.

International marine and engineering firm London Offshore Consultants (LOC) was asked by the Government to undertake a peer review of documents submitted by Rena's owner and insurers to support their resource consent application to leave most of the wreck on the reef.

LOC's reports were in the hands of ministers before the Government announced its decision to push for partial removal, having called for bits of the wreck above 30 metres to be removed.

Rena's owner also commissioned a report on the feasibility of removing all the wreck.

TMC Marine's report states the estimated cost was between $534 million and $687 million, in addition to the $377 million already spent but the figures should be regarded with a "degree of caution" due to uncertainties over the wreck's condition, the weather and contractors rates of pay.

Whereas LOC's consultant's reports estimate the cost at between $522 million and $668 million and suggest it would take a bit more than five years.

LOC's report says if there was an offer to put full removal out to international tender "then solutions would be offered that may prove to be less costly".

Hugo Shanahan, spokesman for Rena's owner and insurers, said the LOC's opinion report was a "desk-top review" without any engineering or cost analysis behind it.

"The owner's independent report was prepared by an author that has done just that, including having spent the time on site necessary to take account for the operating circumstances unique to Astrolabe Reef and the Rena."

Mr Shanahan said the LOC report acknowledged the wreck's owner and insurers' expert feasibility study was comprehensive.

Mr Shanahan said the difference between the two reports was the estimated cost per day - LOC's daily cost was $370,000 versus the owner's $337,000.

"So it would then come down to time and technique with the weather and marine conditions remaining the main variable under either scenario," he said.

Mr Shanahan said if the job went to international tender other solutions may be found, but the highly experienced salvage team had already "thrown everything but the kitchen sink" at the problem.

Rena breaking up, plus unique marine and weather conditions had "changed the playing field".

Nevan Lancaster, who headed the Tauranga Business Action Group against Rena's owners and insurers, said the report's findings vindicated what he had been saying since it grounded.

"Now we have a full report saying what I said two-and-half-years ago. All you need is a platform with a large crane on top to lift parts of it out of the water. Times that by about 200 and boom, you're done," he said.

A spokesperson for Attorney-General Chris Finlayson said Ministers and officials considered a range of environmental, cultural and economic evidence before pushing for partial removal.