Vessels collide causing oil spill off Tompok Utara

The two foreign-registered merchant vessels are now anchored at a location seven nautical miles southeast of Tompok Utara, says Johor exco member.

PETALING JAYA: Two merchant vessels collided 32 nautical miles off Tompok Utara, near Pengerang, Kota Tinggi yesterday, causing an oil spill.

The 10.30pm incident involved Panama-registered oil/chemical tanker “Chemroad Mega” and the Marshall Islands-registered “Sinica Graeca” bulk carrier, reported the New Straits Times.

Johor Health, Environment, Education and Information Committee chairman Ayub Rahmat said there were no injuries involving crew members in the incident.

He said the Royal Malaysian Navy vessel ‘KD Pendekar’ received information about the collision of the two vessels on Thursday.

“Both vessels are now anchored at a location seven nautical miles southeast of Tompok Utara,” said Ayub in a statement.

He said agents from both vessels arrived at the anchored location on Friday to assess the damage to the vessels.

“The Johor Department of Environment has instructed the owners of both vessels to post a total of RM5 million in bond pending completion of the oil spill clean-up works,” he said.

The two vessels would be detained until the bond was handed over and immediate action taken for clean-up of the oil spill, Ayub said.

He said checks were being made on the extent of the oil spill, which was likely flowing northward to Pulau Tioman.

He added that authorities were investigating the cause of the collision. FMT