The 272-meter-long ‘A Symphony’ tanker, which carries around one million barrels of oil, is spilling petroleum into the Yellow Sea, off the coast of China’s Qingdao port, following a collision with a bulk carrier vessel.
The Shandong Maritime Safety Administration confirmed that a spill had occurred after the oil tanker, owned by Symphony Shipholding SA and NGM Energy, had a collision with bulk carrier ‘Sea Justice’ at 8.50am local time (12:50am GMT) on Tuesday.
Images have been shared on social media claiming to show that the ‘A Symphony’ tanker has suffered a double hull breach, causing it to leak oil into the surrounding water.
Symphony Shipholding SA and NGM Energy have not yet issued a public statement on the collision but Goodwood Ship Management, which operates the vessel, was quoted by Reuters confirming that “a quantity of oil [has been]lost into the ocean.”
The Yellow Sea is a region between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and the oil spill threatens to have environmental and economic impacts, as it could disrupt one of Beijing’s largest crude terminals after officials ordered all vessels to remain 10 nautical miles away from the area. Qingdao currently accounts for around a quarter of China’s crude oil processing capacity.
Officials are currently in the process of responding to the emergency and haven’t provided an evaluation of the pollution levels or the scale of the spill.
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