A massive oil spill off northeast China may be worse than first thought, the U.S. energy giant behind the leak said, after authorities ordered it to clean up the sea bed by Sunday.
A massive oil spill off northeast
China
may
be worse than first thought, the
U.S.
energy giant behind the leak said, after authorities ordered it to clean up the
sea bed by Sunday.
ConocoPhillips (COP) said it was still estimating the amount of oil that has
escaped from the leak, which first came to light a month ago, and had uncovered
evidence it may have been larger than it thought.
"During our cleanup operations in
Bohai
Bay
,
ConocoPhillips discovered additional oil-based drilling mud on the sea
floor," the company said in a statement published on its website
Wednesday.
"Although the amount of the discovery is unknown, we anticipate that it
will push the total amount of oil and oil-based drilling mud released past the
previous estimate of 1,500 barrels."
ConocoPhillips said it had reported the discovery to the authorities, and
divers were continuing to work on cleaning up the sea bed.
Earlier this week China's State Oceanic Administration, or SOA, accused the
company of dragging its feet over the clean-up and threatened to fine it
CNY200,000 ($31,000).
The spill, which has polluted a sea area measuring 1,200 square-kilometers
according to the latest SOA figures, was kept secret by authorities for several
weeks before being made public last month.
It had previously affected a much larger area of more than 4,000
square-kilometers of ocean, according to figures provided by the government
agency, which gave no explanation for the apparent contradiction.
The SOA has ordered ConocoPhillips to finish cleaning the contaminated ocean
floor by Sunday--a deadline the company said it hoped to meet.
"Hundreds of professional clean up workers are on the scene and we hope to
meet the Sunday deadline," company spokeswoman Donna Xue said Thursday.
"Obviously, the new discovery puts extra pressure on the efforts."
ConocoPhillips and its local partner, the China National Offshore Oil Company,
have apologized for the spill, but environmental campaigners have said they
aren't being transparent over the damage caused.
"It's hard to determine the fingerprint of the oil because this
information is only accessible by the government," said Ma Jun, director
of the
Institute
of
Public
and
Environmental Affairs.
"The overall damage is still being assessed, but ConocoPhillips has done
little to inspire trust."
Business owners have also expressed their anger about the spill.
A local fisheries association said this week that about 70% of the scallops
farmed in the area were killed by the oil, causing losses of more than CNY200
million.
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