Popular beaches on Singapore’s resort island of Sentosa were fouled with fuel oil over the weekend following an oil spill caused by a Dutch dredger hitting a stationary bunker tanker at the Pasir Panjang container terminal on Friday.
The Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) named the vessels involved in the incident as Van Oord’s 29,900-gt trailing suction hopper dredger Vox Maxima (built 2009) and Straits Bunkering’s 9,000-dwt bunker tanker Marine Honour (built 2007).
The allision damaged one of the Marine Honour’s cargo tankers, spilling an unspecified amount of marine fuel oil into port waters.
Video footage circulating online over the weekend showed the Marine Honour docked alongside an Evergreen Marine container ship shortly after the allision.
Both the Marine Honour and Vox Maxima were on Sunday anchored in the western anchorage with harbour craft in attendance. The MPA said both vessels are in stable condition, with some damage above the waterline. No injuries were reported.
“MPA observed that oil had spilt from the damaged tank as a result of the allision and immediately activated response actions. MPA patrol craft were deployed to spray dispersants on the spill. MPA’s oil spill response contractor was also activated, and they mobilised oil booms, dispersants and oil skimmer to reduce the impact of the spill.
“MPA and its contractor also ran the oil spill prediction model and used drones and satellite imagery to assist with mitigation efforts,” the maritime regulator said in an update released on Saturday.
The MPA said that while oil spillage from the bunker tanker had been contained and the oil that escaped from the damaged tank had been treated with dispersants, tidal currents moved the treated oil onto a wide swath of the city-state’s shorelines including prime tourist attraction Sentosa Island and several other popular beaches and a coastal nature reserve.
As of Saturday, 18 response craft had been deployed by the MPA, port operator PSA, Singapore Salvage Engineers, Tian San Shipping and T&T Salvage to carry out the containment and clean-up efforts.
“Close to 1500 metres of containment booms have been deployed and more will be laid over the next few days to prevent further spread of oil onto the shore and to facilitate the recovery of the trapped oil off the affected shorelines and lagoons to prevent it from going back to sea,” the MPA said.
An investigation into the allision will also be carried out, the MPA added.
While the public have been asked to keep away from clean-up areas, berthing operations at PSA terminals remain unaffected.
