One week to clean up oil spill

JOHOR BARU: The authorities anticipate it will take a week to clean up the oil that spilled following Tuesday's collision of two container vessels in the eastern part of the Johor Strait near Pasir Gudang Port.
The Johor Port Authority (LPJ), in a statement today, said how quickly the clean-up could be done was also dependent on the weather and the water currents.
It said the oil spill did not affect the people in the area, including fishermen.
"The spill has also not affected the private jetties as well as the Sultan Iskandar Power Station," it added.
LPJ said the port was operating as usual but vessels could experience delay when berthing at the Container Terminal due to the work to control the oil spill.
It was reported today that some 300 tonnes of oil spilled into the waters off the Pasir Gudang Port after two container vessels collided late Tuesday night.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said it was notified by the Johor Port Authority (JPA) of a collision between a Singapore-registered container vessel Wan Hai 301 and a Gibraltar-registered container vessel APL Denver at about 11.50pm.
State Health and Environment Executive Committee chairman Datuk Ayub Rahmat said based on the Department of Environment's (DoE) observation, most of the oil spill had drifted into Singapore waters.
He said Pulau Ubin in Singapore was the most impacted from the spill.
"The collision happened when Wan Hai suffered a power failure, leading the vessel to be uncontrollable, before hitting APL Denver's starboard tank No. 6," he said. — Bernama