China monitoring four oil slicks from sunken Iranian tanker
Combined size of the spill is about 101 square kilometres, roughly the same size as Paris, State Oceanic Administration says
The spill from a sunken Iranian tanker off China’s east coast has spawned four oil slicks as authorities prepare to send robots to the wreckage to assess the environmental damage.
The Sanchi, which was carrying 136,000 tonnes (1.2 million barrels) of light crude oil from Iran, sank in a ball of flames in the East China Sea on Sunday, a week after colliding with Hong Kong-registered bulk freighter the CF Crystal.
The bodies of only three of the 30 Iranian and two Bangladeshi crew members have been found.
The State Oceanic Administration of China said late on Wednesday that it was monitoring four slicks with a total area of almost 101 square kilometres (39 square miles), roughly the same size as Paris.
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The office was attempting to “control the spread of the oil spill and is carrying out work to estimate its impact on the marine ecological environment”, it said on its website.
On Tuesday, the agency had reported two slicks measuring about 69 square kilometres (26.6 square miles) and an additional 40-square-kilometre (15.4 -square-mile) area of “scattered” oil.