Oil spill incident not due to congestion at port, clean-up will take time: Chee Hong Tat
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The recent oil spill following an incident between a dredging boat and a bunker vessel at Pasir Panjang Terminal was not a result of port congestion, Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat said. In a Facebook post on Tuesday (June 18), he addressed concerns frOil spill incident not due to congestion at port, clean-up will take time: Chee Hong Tat
The recent oil spill following an incident between a dredging boat and a bunker vessel at Pasir Panjang Terminal was not a result of port congestion, Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat said. In a Facebook post on Tuesday (June 18), he addressed concerns from some members of the public. «Investigations are still on-going, but preliminary findings show that the allision on June 14 was caused by the dredger experiencing sudden loss of engine and steering controls,» he wrote. Singapore's port waters and anchorages are not congested, Chee explained. «The earlier reports on delays experienced by container vessels are a separate matter that is due to the bunching of container vessels arriving at PSA.» He also said that the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) was alerted of this incident at 2.22pm on June 14 — four minutes after the allision — and responded by 2.33pm. They ensured that there were no further leaks from the bunker vessel, which had 400 metric tonnes of oil remaining in its tank. MPA patrol craft also sprayed dispersant to treat the oil that had already spilled into the sea. Read more