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Efforts to remove oil sludge from Rayong shoreline
Mae Ramphueng beach declared a disaster area as clean-up gathers pace
Oil sludge has washed up on Mae Ramphueng beach in Rayong province, as personnel from various agencies are involved in the clean-up of the shoreline on Saturday.
The beach was declared a disaster area as oil leaking from an underwater pipeline in the Gulf of Thailand continued to wash ashore and blacken the sand.
The leak from the pipeline owned by Star Petroleum Refining Plc (SPRC) started late on Tuesday and was brought under control a day later after spilling into the Gulf of Thailand 20 kilometres off the coast of Rayong.
A 47-square-kilometre area of the sea was affected before the slick drifted to the shoreline late Friday, a satellite image from the government’s Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency showed.
The navy is working with SPRC to contain the leak and said the main oil mass was still offshore with only a small amount washing up on at least two spots along the 12-kilometre-long beach.
About 150 SPRC workers and 200 navy personnel had been deployed to clean up the beach and oil boom barriers had been set up, the navy said.
Twelve navy ships and three civilian ships along with a number of aircraft were also working to contain the spill at sea with booms and dispersant spray.
“We and the company are still working at sea to reduce the amount of oil by cornering the spill and sucking up the oil and spraying dispersant,” Rear Adm Artorn Charapinyo, deputy commander of the First Naval Area command, told reporters.
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Source: Bangkok Post