Boxships Collide off Johor, Oil Spills from APL Denver
Illustration; Image Courtesy: APLAround 300 tonnes of oil were spilled from the Gibraltar-registered containership APL Denver after the vessel collided with the Singapore-flagged boxship Wan Hai 301 off Pasir Gudang Port, Johor, Malaysia.
The Master of APL Denver reported that one of the containership’s bunker tanks sustained damage in the incident which occurred in the late evening hours on January 3, 2017, according to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).
The Johor Port Authority (JPA) informed that four anti-pollution craft have been deployed on site, while an oil boom was positioned around APL Denver to contain the oil spill.
In Singapore, some oil patches were spotted and the spillage has been contained off the western side of Pulau Ubin. MPA has activated a total of eight anti-pollution craft with dispersant spraying capabilities to clean up the spilled oil.
There have been no reports of injury, while the traffic in the East Johor Straits and Singapore’s port operations remains unaffected.
MPA said that, as the flag state of Wan Hai 301, it will also be investigating the cause of the collision.
