Cash sought from vessels over spill
By Zheng Caixiong (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-12-15 10:39

GUANGZHOU: South China's Guangdong Province plans to go after damages from two vessels that collided and dumped thousands of litres of oil at the mouth of the Pearl River.

Oil leaks from an oil tanker ship that collided with another ship at the sea close to the mouth of the Pearl River in South China, December 8, 2004.

But the amount of compensation sought will not be available until a damage assessment report is complete, said an official from the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Ocean and Aquatic Products Industry yesterday.

A task force is now assessing the damage to local marine ecology and environment caused by the spill of crude oil. Its report is expected in two weeks.

"The marine accident resulted in the spillage of more than 1,200 tons of crude oil which has seriously damaged the ocean environment and ecology in the waters in Guangdong Province," the official told China Daily.

The crude oil spill is the biggest to date in Chinese waters.

Some of the crude oil has dissolved into the deep ocean water, adding to the difficulty of recovering it and cleaning it up, said the official who refused to be named.

As of yesterday afternoon, the cleanup was ongoing and is expected to last a couple of more days.

The collision happened near the mouth of the Pearl River on December 7 when a Panama registered ship collided with a German vessel.

Hvundai Advance, the Pana-manian ship, was sailing from Shenzhen to Singapore when it collided with Mscilona, sailing from Shenzhen to Shanghai. No deaths or injures were reported.

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