Bunkering operation on TS Lines ship causes Hong Kong oil spill
Parts of Hong Kong’s Kwai Tsing Container Terminals remain closed for clean-up operations after an oil spillage occurred on the night of 20 August.
The spillage of bunkers happened while Taiwanese liner operator TS Lines’ 1,100 TEU container ship, TS Kobe, was fuelled at terminals 6 and 7, which are operated by Hongkong International Terminals.
The marine fuel was supplied by Yee Lee 2, a barge operated by local bunker supplier Yee Lee.
Hong Kong’s Marine Department said that it was alerted to the oil spillage around 2200hrs local time on 20 August, and immediately executed spillage response measures.
The oil slick is understood to have spread to waters around Kwai Tsing’s terminal 4 and the Tsing Yi and Stonecutters districts in Hong Kong.
VesselsValue’s ship-tracking data indicates that TS Kobe, which serves TS Lines’ North Vietnam 2 service, remains anchored at the incident spot.
Representatives at TS Lines and Yee Lee declined to comment when contacted by Container News, citing ongoing investigations into the spillage Hong Kong bunker barge operators told Container News that the cleanup could take at least a month.
In June, a severe bunker leakage in Singapore took two months to be fully cleared up, with beaches reopened this month.