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« on: May 25, 2010, 02:30:28 PM » |
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Tanker Collision Spills 2,000 Tons Oil Off Singapore (Update3)
2010-05-25 06:33:30.630 GMT
(See {BMAP 36843 <GO>} for positions of both vessels.)
(Updates with MISC share price drop in eight paragraph.)
By Yee Kai Pin
May 25 (Bloomberg) -- A tanker collided with a bulk carrier off Singapore’s southeastern coast, spilling 2,000 metric tons of crude oil near the world’s busiest container port.
The MT Bunga Kelana 3 tanker collided with the MV Waily at about 6:10 a.m. local time in the Singapore Strait, 13 kilometers (8 miles) southeast of Changi East, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said in a statement. An estimated 140,000 vessels call at Singapore each year, it said on its website. The city-state is also the world’s largest bunkering, or marine fuel, port and Asia’s biggest oil-storage center.
“If you have an oil spill in a harbor, a populated area, it’s going to cause some concern,” said Stuart Traver, a downstream adviser at energy consultants Gaffney, Cline & Associates Ltd. in Singapore. “Two thousand tons of oil is not small -- most environmental organizations get upset about even smaller slicks.”
The spill is equivalent to 14,660 barrels or 616,000 U.S.
gallons, almost enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
BP Plc estimated a damaged Gulf of Mexico oil well has been leaking 5,000 barrels a day since an April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which killed 11 workers.
Independent scientists have told the U.S. Congress crude oil was coming out at more than 10 times that estimate.
Vessels Anchored
The two ships remain anchored in the Singapore Strait, the Maritime and Port Authority statement said. “Work is ongoing to contain and clean up the oil spill.”
AET Tanker Holdings Sdn., the owner of the Bunga Kelana 3 and a unit of Malaysia’s MISC Bhd., is working to “minimize the damage from the oil that’s leaked,” said Paul Lovell, a spokesman for AET Tanker.
“A number of oil-retaining booms have been deployed,”
Lovell said by telephone. “These were done by specialist companies retained by the company. There were no casualties on Bunga Kelana 3. We had 27 crew on the vessel.”
MISC, the world’s biggest owner of liquefied natural gas tankers, dropped 2 percent to 8.33 ringgit at 2 p.m. in Kuala Lumpur, outpacing a 1.4 percent decline for the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index. The stock is set for the steepest decline since April 8.
Double Hull
The Malaysia-flagged Bunga Kelana 3, classed as an Aframax tanker, was built in 1998 with 12 cargo tanks, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It has a double hull, a design meant to prevent oil leaks or flooding beyond the outer compartment.
The vessel currently has a loaded draft of 11.4 meters, compared with its maximum of 14.9 meters, based on transmissions captured by AISLive on Bloomberg. This indicates it’s almost fully laden.
“At this stage, the impact could be relatively mild,”
said Traver at Gaffney, Cline & Associates. “It’s not the same of course as a spewing oil well which won’t stop -- presumably this is it, this is over.”
Treasure Marine Ltd. is the beneficial owner of the Waily, Bloomberg data showed. The 25,449-deadweight-ton vessel, flying a St. Vincent & The Grenadines flag, was built in 1983.
“Bunga Kelana 3 has made her way, under her own power, and is now safely anchored,” AET, which owns or operates 71 vessels, said in an e-mailed statement. “The condition of the other vessel is stable.”
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