Asia/Pacific News
MPA: Singapore Bunker Spill Vessels Were Issued Warnings Prior to Collision
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) says two vessels that yesterday collided resulting in a bunker spill at the port, were issued warnings by MPA's Port Operations Control Centre prior to the collision.
The warnings, along with other information, were given when the vessels were about 1.5 nautical miles (about 2.8km) apart, MPA said.
Ship & Bunker reported yesterday that approximately 100 metric tonnes of fuel oil were spilled from South Korean-registered bulk carrier Oriental Pioneer after it was involved in a collision with Bahamas-registered bulk carrier Atlantic Hero about 6.6km south-west of Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.
In Tuesday evening's incident update, MPA also said that good progress has been made in containing and cleaning up the bunker spill, and there has been no further spillage of fuel oil from Oriental Pioneer.
An oil boom and an oil spill response craft have been deployed around the vessel as a precautionary measure.
Bio-degradable oil dispersants were used to break up the oil slick in the waters and as of 1700hrs local time, no significant patches of oil were sighted in the waters.
In total, 11 craft and some 100 personnel from MPA and oil spill response companies were deployed as part of the containment and clean up efforts, and a helicopter was also deployed to conduct aerial surveillance of the affected waters.
Port operations, and vessel traffic in the Strait of Singapore and port waters were reported to be unaffected.
Bloomberg reported that Oriental Pioneer is beneficially owned by Tokyo-based Nippon Yusen K.K., and the company's South Korean subsidiary is preparing for repairs to the ship.
MPA said it is investigating the cause of the collision.
