CNA Explains: What we know about the Singapore oil spill that's affected Sentosa and other beaches
About 400 tonnes of fuel were released into the sea on Friday. An accident over two decades ago involved 7,000 tonnes - but that wasn't Singapore's largest oil spill ever.
Bags of oil-covered sand are seen at East Coast Park on Jun 16, 2024, two days after an oil spill at Pasir Panjang Terminal. (Photo: CNA/Davina Tham)
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SINGAPORE: An oil spill on Friday (Jun 14) has led to beaches around Singapore being closed. Clean-up efforts are still underway, with slicks also spreading to the Southern Islands tourist attractions and sighted as far east as the Changi area.
What happened?
The spill was sparked by Netherlands-flagged dredger Vox Maxima hitting Singapore-flagged bunker vessel Marine Honour at Pasir Panjang Terminal at about 2.20pm on Friday.
According to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), Vox Maxima reported a sudden loss in engine and steering control before its allision with Marine Honour - referring to when a moving vessel hits a stationary object.
This ruptured one of Marine Honour’s oil cargo tanks, releasing about 400 tonnes of low-sulphur fuel into the sea.
The incident was not caused by port congestion, Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat said on Tuesday as he gave a brief timeline of events.
How widespread is the spill?
On Saturday, oil washed up along several beaches including at Sentosa island and East Coast Park, as well as the shoreline at Labrador Nature Reserve.
The next day, beaches at St John's, Lazarus and Kusu islands were closed. Oil slicks were also spotted at Marina South Pier.
On Monday, some oil was seen off the coast of Changi.
How does it compare to other oil spills in the past?
A 1999 Oil Spill Intelligence Report said the Singapore Strait was considered one of the world’s hot spots given its reputation as one of the busiest sea lanes globally.
The largest oil spill in Singapore happened in 1997, when two tankers collided about 5km south of a Singapore Port Limit. About 28,000 tonnes of oil were spilled - 70 times that of Friday's incident.
Emergency aid from the Japanese government was sought to help contain the spill, which damaged mangrove forests and coral reefs in the vicinity of Raffles Lighthouse.
Waters west of Singapore were covered with greasy patches, with oil also washing up on Pulau Sebarok and Pulau Hantu islands.
In 2000, about 7,000 tonnes of crude oil were spilled when a vessel ran aground just 8km from Sentosa. The oil washed up on the beaches of Sentosa, St John’s Island and Lazarus Island.
A decade later, a tanker collided with a bulk carrier about 13km from Changi’s shore, spilling about 2,500 tonnes of crude oil into the waters.
And 10 years ago, three separate ship allisions occurred in two months, spilling a total of 760 tonnes of fuel oil into Singapore's waters and polluting the beaches off Kusu and St John’s islands.
How is it being cleaned up?
On Saturday, 18 response craft were deployed to contain and clean up the spill.
About 100 workers were deployed the next day to help clean up Sentosa's beaches, with vacuum pumps also used to remove surface oil.
On Tuesday, authorities said close to 1,500m of containment booms have been deployed since Friday at Keppel Marina, East Coast Park and Labrador Nature Reserve to prevent further spread of oil onto the shore.
Another 1,600m of these booms, which are temporary floating barriers, will be deployed over the next few days in areas such as Sentosa and the Southern Islands.
The booms will also help prevent the oil from going back out to sea.
Oil-absorbent booms have also been deployed off biodiversity-sensitive areas such as Pulau Ubin's Chek Jawa Wetlands, Coney Island Park, Pasir Ris Park and West Coast Park.
Over the next few days, more booms will be deployed to protect fish farms at the East Johor Straits and also Chek Jawa Wetlands and Changi Creek.
Other measures include a specialised oil floating containment and recovery device called a Current Buster, which has been deployed off Changi Exhibition Centre as a pre-emptive measure. Two such systems have also been deployed off Labrador Nature Reserve and Bedok Jetty.
Each Current Buster system consists of a floating barrier sitting on the water’s surface, with a submerged extension called a skirt that extends below the surface to corral and collect the oil.
Two sets of skimmer systems have also been deployed at Marina South Pier and off East Coast Lagoon. These include craft-towed booms to corral surface oil and a component to skim and “lift” oil off the water surface and into storage tanks.
MPA has also deployed drones to surveil affected areas.
What's the impact?
The Singapore Food Agency said on Monday that local fish remain safe to eat, and that there was a “low risk” of the oil spill spreading to farms.
National water agency PUB also said that Singapore’s water supply has not been affected.
But yacht companies and water sports businesses have told CNA that they had to put their tours and rentals on hold over the long weekend, racking up thousands in lost earnings.
MPA on Sunday said it was working with British Marine, the insurer of the stationary Marine Honour tanker, to set up a third-party claims contact for affected parties.
CNA has contacted MPA for more information.
Meanwhile, marine biologist Toh Tai Chong told CNA that organisms living on or near the water's surface such as sea birds, mangrove forests and corals could be smothered by the oil slick and end up ingesting chemicals.
Dr Toh, a lecturer at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and also co-founder of non-profit organisation Our Singapore Reefs, warned that the impact of the pollution could be felt for months to come.
For instance, with their movements restricted, birds cannot hunt for prey or evade predators well.
Various toxins from the oil can also impact the reproduction of corals.
If oil seeps into the soil at beaches, it will not be easy to eradicate, as was the case in the 2010 spill off Changi. Such oil can be ingested by organisms such as clams and worms, and in turn, poison their predators.
“Nature will naturally recover ... Oil will disperse over time," said Dr Toh. "But it depends on how fast the response is, and the scale of the impact.”
He advised against fishing and foraging for marine wildlife in the medium term.
“Try not to harvest (wildlife) and consume them in the coming three months, especially for filter feeders like clams," he said. "They tend to accumulate more of the toxins."
