An oil tanker and a bulk carrier collided in waters between Malaysia and Singapore yesterday morrning, spilling an estimated 2,500 tonnes of oil, but traffic in Asia’s busiest shipping lane was not affected.
The Malaysian flagged MT Bunga Kelana 3 was carrying about 62,000 tonnes of light crude oil, the country’s coast guard said.
Singapore port authorities said the spill measured about 4km by 1km and was located 6km south of Singapore’s southeastern tip at 2:20pm local time.
Singapore and Malaysia activated oil-spill response companies and a clean-up operation involving 20 craft was under way. There were no reports of injuries among the 50 crewmembers.
The incident happened in the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) of the Singapore Strait, 13km from the tip of the city-state, the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) said.
The spill, equivalent to about 18,000 barrels, is dwarfed by the approximately 175,000 barrels of oil that has poured into the Gulf of Mexico since the deadly April 20 offshore explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon rig.
It was less than a tenth the size of Singapore’s worst such oil spill since the MPA was created.
As much as 29,000 tonnes of heavy marine fuel oil leaked into Singapore waters from the tanker Evoikos in 1997 after it collided with the Orapin Global tanker.
“This is a relatively small amount in the general scheme of things and it is not like the Gulf of Mexico, which is continuing to leak,” said Victor Shum from oil consultancy Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.
“If it is contained within oil retaining booms, it may not disrupt shipping traffic. There is no comparison. That one has really no limit at this stage,” he said.
In terms of the impact of Singapore’s spill on the environment, Shum said: “I think certainly the concerns are there. Even if it is contained, it will take some time to clean up.” The 1997 Evoikos spill took three weeks to clean up.
Singapore and Malaysia were applying oil dispersants and containment booms for the clean-up, MPA said.
The collision was between the tanker and the MV Waily, a bulk carrier registered in St Vincent and the Grenadines, which suffered minor damage, the Malaysian coast guard said.
Both vessels are anchored away from the incident’s site.
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’