Marine Exercises Held for Oil Spills

Marine Exercises Held for Oil Spills

China staged a large marine exercise Monday at the mouth of Pearl River to improve its response capacity to oil spills at sea. The drill was the largest ever and the first to be held in the Guangzhou-Hong Kong area.

The drill began at 8:50 am Monday morning with a simulated collision between a cargo ship and an oil tanker north of Shenzhen.

For the purposes of the drill, the tanker was said to be loaded with 500 tons of oil, which if spilled would cause extensive damage to nature reserves, aquatic cultivation fields, and scenic spots in the area.

Soon after, the Shenzhen Maritime Safety Administration received a rescue request from the oil tanker and immediately began organizing a rescue and pollution-control mission.

By 9:20, Shenzhen's marine fire-fighting squad, two monitoring ships and a pollution-control ship arrived at the accident site. The fire-fighting ship put out the flames by 9:35 am.

The drill involved two helicopters and 40-plus ships from Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Hong Kong, and Macao, and ended successfully by noon.

Song Jiahui, vice-director of the State Maritime Safety Administration said the drill displayed a quick and well co-ordinated response by Guangdong Province, Hong Kong and Macao.

Song said the drill proves that oil spills can be handled efficiently and quickly.

The area had two serious oil spills last year, one in Yantai in November and another in Zhuhai in March. More than 300 people died because of the Yantai spill, and 500 tons of oil were leaked in the Zhuhai spill, causing economic losses of 40 million yuan (US$4.8 million).

Last year's spill at Zhuhai took place not far from the site of yesterday's drill.