Marine News, August 5, 2013: An oil tanker, owned by Indonesian oil and gas company Pertamina spilled 5,400 tons of crude oil in the Molucca Sea in eastern Indonesia.
KM Patriot Andalan was carrying 7,000 tons of oil and was anchored at the Ternate port in North Maluku when the incident happened. Rough seas caused the connection between the vessel and the transfer pipe to rapture, spilling most of the oil into the waters.
Indonesian daily Jakarta Globe quoted Pertamina’s distribution manager, Bagus Handoko as saying, “We are currently trying to contain the oil spill and prevent it from expanding further, while trying to neutralize the oil already spilled into the sea.”
This is the second oil spill reported within a week in Southeast Asia. Previously, 314 barrels (50,000 liters) of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Thailand on July 27, 2013 from a leaking pipeline operated by the Thai company PTT Global Chemical. The cleaning operations are still underway.
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