Port of Dalian

On 16 July 2010, two pipelines at the Petrochina International Warehousing & Transportation oil terminal in the port of Xingang, Dalian, in Northeast China, exploded and set fire to a crude oil tank with a capacity of 90,000 tonnes. The incident resulted in the release of at least 1,500 tonnes of heavy crude oil into the port and coastal waters, leading to partial closure of the port.
A subsequent ministerial enquiry revealed that the initial explosion was caused by an error during the desulphurisation of the crude oil that had just been unloaded from a Libyan tanker (Universal Diamond).

Spill response

More than 2,000 firefighters were deployed in the first few hours after the incident to tackle the blaze, which was brought under control after 15 hours of firefighting operations. The crude oil that did not burn in the fire was released into the port waters, forming slicks that drifted towards the shoreline. In the space of three days, the oil washed up along 180 km2 of shoreline. Sheen was also observed over a total surface area of 435 km2, although only affecting Chinese waters.

The local contingency plan was quickly activated by the Dalian authorities. Liaoning MSA Search and Rescue Center was responsible for coordinating the response and ensuring safety in the incident area. Finally, given the scale of the incident, the Ministry of Transport and the China Maritime Safety Administration activated the national contingency plan and China MSA took over the coordination of personnel and equipment from neighbouring provinces and regions. Liaoning MSA was appointed as clean-up commanding headquarters, with cooperation from several expert groups on specific aspects of spill response, composed of representatives of public institutions. Private companies were also been contracted by the oil company's emergency response unit to provide expertise and assistance with operations.

At sea, aerial and shipborne surveys were conducted to determine the extent of the pollution at sea, supported by satellite images (Radarsat-2) and data from airborne sensors (radar and thermal infrared cameras). Using oil spill tracking buoys and digital drift modelling, slick movements were tracked and forecast in order to optimise the deployment of response resources at sea, which included around thirty vessels from China MSA, China Rescue & Salvage and the oil industry.

Response operations mainly focused on:

• Containment and recovery of slicks in the vicinity of the release (booms deployed in the port area, protection of sensitive coastal sites in terms of tourism and aquaculture, sorbent booms, custom-made systems, etc.);
• Recovery at sea as quickly as possible using specialised equipment (recovery vessels, skimmers deployed from fishing vessels) but also manual techniques (scoops, buckets, sorbents, used from small boats with storage in barrels);
• Additional use of chemical dispersion (spraying from vessels of mixtures prepared directly on board using fire hoses).

On land, shoreline clean-up operations were organised. They mainly involved manual collection by large numbers of volunteers supervised by military personnel.

The local government decided to end response operations on 31 August 2010. In total, according to China MSA, response operations mobilised:

• 45,000 people;
• 38,500 m of booms;
• Over 27,000 m of sorbent boom;
• 430,000 knitted straw;
• 175 tonnes of sorbents;
• Nearly 7,000 drums used for manual collection of floating oil.

These operations resulted in the recovery of 12,376 tonnes of a crude oil/water mixture and more than 7,000 tonnes of oily garbage. According to China MSA, a bioremediation agent (23 tonnes of a product containing bacteria that promote the biodegradation of oil) was also used.

After action reviews

The authorities highlighted a number of key points in terms of feedback, namely:

• Timely containment of most of the spilled oil at the leak source;
• Use of satellite images, drift models and marker buoys to monitor slicks;
• The significant involvement of fishermen (8,150 trips completed for recovery operations, in addition to 1,012 trips by specialised vessels, according to the MSA).

Socio-economic and environmental impacts

The oil spill severely affected the fishing industry near Dalian, particularly offshore shellfish farms, many of which were contaminated by oil, rendering the shellfish unfit for consumption or killing them. The economic loss was estimated at tens of millions of dollars. The official news agency Xinhua stated that the incident had caused a direct economic loss of 223 million yuan (£23 million).
Non-governmental organisations such as Greenpeace China disputed the official figure for the quantity spilled, suggesting that at least 60,000 tonnes were in fact released according to the impacts observed.