Bunker Fuel Pollution Fears Raised over Striken Tanker Sanchi

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Thursday January 11, 2018

Fears of pollution from bunker fuel carried by the stricken tanker in the East China Sea have been raised by the South Korean authorities.

The Sanchi caught fire following a collision with another ship as it was heading to South Korea with a cargo of gas condensate, according to Reuters.

That fuel is likely to evaporate and therefore does not pose a pollution threat. But the crude oil tanker could burn for up to one month raising the possibility of bunker fuel leaking into the sea and causing environmental damage.

"The problem is the ship's heavy bunker fuel," said Chauncey Naylor, a US-based director of emergency response and training at Tyco Corp's oil-fire specialists Williams Fire & Hazard Control, was quoted as saying.

"It burns real slow and it's heavy and will lay on the ocean and on any twisted metal and create heavy smoke. It's the stuff that spills and gets on birds."

Williams Fire & Hazard Control is not involved in the clean-up.