A dozen vessels on April 29 are at work cleaning up about 400 tons of oil that spilled into the sea from a tanker following a collision off one of China’s busiest ports, the maritime safety agency said.
The tanker A Symphony was struck on April 27 by a cargo ship, the Sea Justice , in the Yellow Sea outside Qingdao, southeast of Beijing. The tanker’s manager said some cargo and ballast tanks were ruptured. No injuries were reported.
The Maritime Safety Administration’s one-sentence announcement gave no other details.
An official at the Shandong Maritime Safety Administration told Reuters the level of oil still on the tanker, which had been carrying a 1,50,000-tonne cargo of bitumen blend, remained "unchanged". That indicated the spill had been contained, although the official cautioned the information was not definitive.
With the clean-up well underway and ships steering clear of the accident site near the port city of Qingdao, experts were finalising plans to deal with the A Symphony .
Ships have been instructed to stay at least 10 nautical miles away from the A Symphony , but the agency said on Thursday the accident had not affected traffic to and from the port.
Hong Kong-based fuel trading company Run Cheng International Resource (HK) Co. has said it was the owner of the 1,50,000-tonne cargo of bitumen blend on board the A Symphony .
Bitumen mix, a blend of heavy crude oil and residue, is used by China's independent refiners as an alternative refining feedstock as it often incurs a lower import tax than crude oil. It is also used for road surfacing and roofing.
