Oil spill after collision

The Malaysian-flagged MT Bunga Kelana 3 was carrying about 62,000 tonnes of light crude oil, the country’s coast guard said. Singapore port authorities said the spill measured about 4 km by 1 km and was located 6 km south of Singapore’s southeastern tip at 2:20 pm local time.

Singapore and Malaysia activated oil-spill response companies and a clean-up operation involving 20 craft was under way. There were no reports of injuries among the 50 crew members.

The incident happened in the Traffic Separation Scheme of the Singapore Strait, 13 km from the tip of the island nation, the city-state’s Maritime and Port Authority said.

The spill, equivalent to about 18,000 barrels, is dwarfed by the approximately 1,75,000 barrels of oil that has poured into the Gulf of Mexico since the deadly April 20 offshore explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon rig. It was less than a tenth the size of Singapore’s worst such oil spill since the MPA was created. As much as 29,000 tonnes of heavy marine fuel oil leaked into Singapore waters from the tanker Evoikos in 1997 after it collided with the Orapin Global tanker.