MANILA, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Work to recover over one million litres of oil on a tanker that sank off the coast off Guimaras island in central Philippines will start on March 14, local oil refiner Petron Corp. <PCOR.PS> said on Thursday.

The Solar 1, chartered by Petron, sank in rough seas on Aug. 11 and is believed to have leaked around 500,000 litres of bunker oil, affecting more than 40,000 people and more than 200 km (125 miles) of coastline in central Philippines.

The bulk of the 2 million litre cargo of oil remains trapped in the tanker, buried about 640 metres (2,100 feet) under water off Guimaras, which is renowned for its coral reefs, mangroves and sweet mangoes.

Italian salvage firm Sonsub will recover the oil.

"We will be operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week to hasten the recovery of any trapped oil in Solar 1," Robin Galletti, project director of Sonsub, said.

The cost of the operation, expected to last about three weeks, was estimated at $6 million.

"This is the second time in history that such a deep sea oil retrieval operation will be undertaken," Petron said.

Sonsub successfully retrieved 13,500 tons of crude oil from the tanker Prestige, which sank in 10,000 feet of water 240 km off the coast of Spain.

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