Asia/Pacific News
Spill Reported During Bunkering in New Zealand
Up to 20 litres of heavy fuel oil (HFO) was spilled during a bunkering operation at the Port of Tauranga, New Zealand, Tuesday morning, local news site SunLive reports.
The leak came from the Seastar Empress near the end of the refuelling process and was discovered at 11:30 a.m. local time.
"The failure occurred at the coupling connection to the Port of Tauranga fuel lines," said Adrian Heays, senior pollution prevention officer with the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.
"The hose, coupling and the connection are being examined and will not be reused until the cause is determined."
"We found only oil sheen, and prop-washing was used to disperse this," Heays said.
Most of the oil was collected around the bunkering connection, and only one litre escaped into the harbour.
Authorities are investigating the exact cause of the spill.
A separate spill occurred earlier this month, when a hose split while a ship was loading crude tall oil, a by-product of pine pulp manufacture.
In March, owners of a containership that spilled 1,000 litres of bunker fuel into Tauranga Harbour last year were fined NZD30,000 ($25,700).
