In a reply to Singapore’s parliamentary questions on recent oil spills and leak incidents that occurred on June 14, October 20 and October 28 this year, the country’s minister of state for transport, Murali Pillai, emphasised that the nature and scale of each incident was different, and the cause of each incident was unrelated to the others.
The comments by the minister of state for transport were made on Monday in light of the various oil pollution incidents which happened within the Singapore port waters this year.
The incident on June 14, as the minister explained in detail in his ministerial statement on 2nd July, was due to an allision between a dredger and a bunker tanker at Pasir Panjang Terminal-this led to a sudden discharge of an estimated 400 tonnes of oil into the sea.
According to Pillai, the incident on October 20 was the result of a leak in Shell’s land-based pipeline at Bukom-this led to an estimated 30 to 40 tonnes of slop, which is a mixture of oil and water, leaking into the sea. It was not a maritime incident, as it was noted.
For the oil leak on 20th October, Shell activated resources to clean up the leaked slop in the channel between Pulau Bukom and Pulau Bukom Kechil. Clean-up operations were completed on 29th October.
The 28th October incident occurred due to an overflow of bunker fuel in the receiving vessel during a bunkering operation off Changi-this led to an estimated 5 tonnes of oil overflowing into the sea, Pillai said, which was a much smaller amount compared to the 14th June incident.
“Given the very different natures, scales and locations of the three incidents, the time and resources required to monitor, clean up and mitigate the spread of oil from these three incidents were different. It is therefore not useful to compare the response times for these incidents,” said Pillai.
He also highlighted that in each of the three incidents, “the government agencies responded in a coordinated, swift, and effective manner,” adding that due to the close collaboration and efforts amongst agencies and industry players, they were able to ensure smooth clean-up operations and prevent the further spread of oil in the waters.
There have also been no other oil sightings at sea and ashore, as he said, arising from these incidents.
