Worst Oil Spill Last Month News

South Korean prosecutors have reportedly charged five people, including the captain of a Hong Kong-registered tanker, following the nation's worst oil spill last month, according to an AFP report. Last month a drifting barge smashed into the 147,000-ton Hebei Spirit on December 7, holing it in three places and spilling 10,900 tonnes of crude. The barge owned by Samsung Heavy Industries had snapped its towline to two tugboats inThe tanker, owned by Hebei Shipping, a Hong Kong corporation, was anchored at the time. Its captain and mate were indicted but not detained for failing to follow safety orders from navigation authorities, the prosecutors said. (Source: AFP)

Reuters reported that South Korea will ban single-hulled tankers from traveling in its waters by 2011, earlier than the international regulation that calls for a ban from 2015, Seoul's maritime ministry said. A single-hulled tanker was involved in South Korea's worst oil spill last month, leaking around 10,500 tons of crude oil after a sea-bound crane mounted on a barge punched holes in the tanker's hull. As of January, 43 per cent of the crude imported into South Korea was carried by single-hulled tankers. This is the first time the ministry has officially set a time frame for banning the tankers. The ministry had previously said it was aiming to phase out single-hulled tankers as soon as 2010.