Bình Thuận ready to prevent oil spills

BÌNH THUẬN — The People’s Committee of southern Bình Thuận Province yesterday sent an urgent message to authorised agencies on the implementation of measures to prevent oil spills from sunken vessel.

In the message, the committee approved the plan of renting vessels capable of extracting oil from the An Phú 868 vessel as proposed by the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment. 

In addition, the committee asked the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the provincial Maritime Port, the provincial Border Guard Command and relevant departments, sectors and localities to closely coordinate and carry out the plan of the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

It asked the authorized agencies to hire vehicles to extract oil and take measures to deal with unexpected incidents. The agencies were required to keep contact with the Southern Oil Spill Response Centre to get support when in need.

At 10am on June 5, the An Phú 868 vessel with the capacity of 2,000 tonnes was transporting cargo from An Giang to Hải Phòng when it hit a shallow lagoon. The hit left the vessel stranded and tilting.

Nine crew members on the vessel were rescued. There are currently about 10,500 litres of oil on the vessel. — VNS