Vietnamese authorities will hold a Taiwan-owned tanker for an "unknown period" after it collided with a Vietnamese tanker last week, triggering a diesel spill, officials said yesterday.
They said the Vietnamese tanker Petrolimex 01, owned by state-run Vietnam National Import-Export Corp (Petrolimex), had arrived at Ho Chi Minh City port for repair after all the diesel in a damaged compartment had been pumped out.
No one was injured in the accident, which occurred early last Friday in a bay off Vung Tau, in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province. The diesel spill was about 40km from the nearest tourist beach.
Truong Thanh Cong, director of the Science, Technology and Environment Department in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, said Formosa One was being held at an anchorage off the province.
"Formosa One is still being held there while we are assessing environmental damages," Cong said, but did not say when the tanker, which is registered in Liberia, could continue its journey.
The tanker, owned by Taiwan's Formosa Plastics and carrying 20,000 tonnes of diesel collided with Petrolimex 01, which was carrying 19,000 tonnes of diesel while entering an anchorage off Vung Tau.
Vung Tau port authority officials have said the crash had damaged a compartment of Petrolimex 01 causing several hundred tonnes of diesel to spill.
However, director Cong said the spill was about 700 tonnes because the damaged compartment contained a little more than 1,000 tonnes of diesel.
Yesterday, local authorities and a Vietnam-Russia joint venture, Vietsovpetro, were fighting to contain the spill.
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