Oil 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.

"This is important to prevent the oil from hardening, which would make subsequent clean-up operations at sea and on land much harder," the transport minister explained.

MPA's contractor also deployed oil booms around the damaged vessel to reduce the spread of the spill.

"While the booms can help reduce the spread of the spill, they may not completely prevent the oil from spreading as some of the oil could be carried by tidal currents and waves, and go above or below the booms," Chee said.

18 response craft and about 1,500m of booms have been deployed to prevent the spread of the oil and facilitate the clean-up, as of Tuesday, CNA reported. Another 1,600m of booms will be installed over the next few days.

"It will take time for MPA to complete the full investigations and progressively clean up the oil spill," the transport minister explained. 

"We seek the understanding of members of the public and businesses who are affected by this incident. We will do our best to complete the clean up as soon as possible."

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khooyihang@asiaone.com