SKorea stops oil spill after tanker collision, focuses on cleanup

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea's Coast Guard said Friday it stopped oil leaking from a supertanker in seas near South Korea's west coast and was cleaning up what appeared to be the country's largest offshore spill.

About 66,000 barrels or 10.5 million litres of crude oil gushed from the 133,000-tonne Hong Kong-registered ship after a crane-carrying vessel slammed into it at around 7:10 a.m. local time Friday the Coast Guard said.

The site was about 11 kilometres off Mallipo beach, approximately 150 kilometres southwest of Seoul, the Coast Guard said. YTN, a 24-hour cable news channel, showed footage of the black oil leaking out of the ship and into the ocean.

The region is popular for scenic beaches, including Mallipo. It is also home to a national maritime park and an important refueling stop for migratory birds.

Cho Sung-won, a regional Coast Guard spokesman, said the leak was stopped at around noon.

The spill was believed to be South Korea's largest, according to the Coast Guard and the Maritime Ministry. A spill in 1995, previously considered the largest, happened when about 35,000 barrels of crude and fuel oil was leaked.

Jung Se-hi, a spokesman at Coast Guard headquarters in Incheon, 40 kilometers west of Seoul, said 34 coast guard, navy and other government vessels as well as four helicopters were involved in the operation, with efforts focused on cleanup after the leak had been stopped.

Environmental and other damage from Friday's spill would likely be less compared with 1995, said Jang Ki-pyo, a Maritime and Fisheries Ministry official, as the leaked oil would be quickly frozen during cold winter temperatures and because the accident took place about 10 kilometers from shore.

It was unclear if any of the leaked oil had reached the shore, the Coast Guard's Jung said.

There were no human casualties in the accident, the Coast Guard said.

The tanker was at anchor, carrying about 260,000 tons of crude oil - or about 1.8 million barrels - when the accident happened.

© The Canadian Press, 2007