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Korea’s Worst Oil Spill Ever

Posted December. 08, 2007 03:05,   

한국어

The 147,000-ton Hong Kong-registered oil tanker Hebei Spirit crashed into a 12,000-ton crane-carrying vessel on Friday at around 7 a.m. 5km southwest of Shin Island near Taean, South Chungcheong Province. Due to the collision, 15,800kl of crude oil leaked into the water, making it the worst spill ever in the nation’s history.

Because the Hebei Spirit is still leaking 500 to 800 kl oil from the left side of three broken oil tanks, the oil spill is expected to be twice as big as the previous largest oil spill from the vessel Sea Prince (8381 kl), which sank in 1995. The oil is now spreading and moving toward Shinjin Island near Taean at a speed of 2.4km per hour with the strong tide

The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and the Korean Coast Guard sent 12 patrol ships, three oil-spill control vessels and 10 private oil-spill control vessels to the site, setting up a 600-meter floating fence around the scene to collect the oil.



salt@donga.com