Malaysia sends aircraft to help Thailand clear up oil slick threatening to damage environment
- The C-130 joined other planes, ships and a helicopter deployed by the Thai navy to contain the damage from The Star Petroleum Refining Public Company’s oil leak
- The slick could affect 24 hectares (59 acres) of coral and 48 hectares (118 acres) of seagrass, causing environmental damage that would take time to rehabilitate
An aircraft from a company specialising in recoveries from oil spills arrived Thursday from Malaysia to join an urgent effort to clean up an oil slick before it could hit beaches in eastern Thailand, officials said.
The C-130 joined other planes, ships and a helicopter deployed by the Thai navy to contain the damage from The Star Petroleum Refining Public Company’s oil that leaked Tuesday night from a mooring station in the Gulf of Thailand.
Information from Thailand’s Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency suggested that prevailing winds could blow the oil slick to major beaches in Rayong province or Samet Island by Friday evening if not cleaned up before then, said Thai navy’s Rear Admiral Wichanu Thupa-ang.
He said the agency’s report estimated that the slick covered 11.65 square kilometres (4.5 square miles).
Star Petroleum Refining estimated that about 20 to 50 tons (18 to 45 tonnes) of oil had been spilled. It said in a statement that the amount of oil in the slick has been reduced to 4.8 tonnes since dispersant sprays were deployed by aircraft Wednesday.
Some initial estimates of the amount of spilled oil were much higher.
Star Petroleum said specialists from the company Oil Spill Response Ltd arrived with the C-130 aircraft.