Over 500 fishing boats join Dalian oil spill cleanup operations after pipeline explosion

Over 500 fishing boats Monday joined a massive oil spill clean-up operation underway off the coast of northeastern China's Dalian City, three days after pipelines exploded near the city's oil reserve base, one of China's largest.

A dark-brown oil slick has stretched over at least 183 square kilometers of ocean near blast-hit Xingang port, with 50 square kilometers severely polluted.

The over 500 fishing boats have been loaded with oil absorbers and dispersants to help in the clean-up south of Dalian's Golden Pebble Beach and east of Bangchui Island.

Strong winds help contain the severely polluted area Sunday, Luan Yuxuan, deputy director of Dalian City's Oceanic and Fishery Administration, said Monday.

Luan said the clean-up operations will take at least four to five days.

The cleanup started Saturday. By Monday morning, 24 oil clean-up vessels and 800 fishing boats had been mobilized, said Luan. About 460 tonnes of the spilled oil has been collected.

Officials said they did not know the exact amount of oil spilled into the sea.

Large quantities of oil-spill dispersant and absorption felts have been shipped in from neighboring Tianjin Municipality and Shandong Province, maritime officials said.

Vessel traffic at Dalian, China's second largest port for crude oil imports, has been limited to allow the cleanup operations to proceed.

Wang Ning, a senior engineer with the maritime affairs bureau of Liaoning Province, told Xinhua port operations have been limited but not completely suspended.

Ships are allowed to enter and exit the ports with permission, he said.@ Fire engulfed the Xingang port Friday evening, after an oil pipeline exploded, triggering an adjacent pipeline to explode as well. The fires raged for 15 hours before being extinguished Saturday morning. No one was hurt in the explosions or subsequent fires.

A team was established Sunday morning to investigate the incident.

Source: Xinhua