© Provided by Agencia EFE
Bangkok, Jan 29 (EFE) .- An oil spill caused by the escape of a marine storage buoy reached a beach on the southeast coast of Thailand last night, where soldiers and government officials are working this Saturday to clean up the oil.
The spill from a buoy belonging to the company Star Petroleum Refining, owned by Chevron (USA), caused a stain of about 45 square kilometers, part of which has ended up on the Mae Ramhueng beach in Rayong province, the newspaper reported. Bangkok Post.
Star Petroleum Refining said they have been able to control the spill, which occurred on Tuesday at a marine buoy 20 kilometers off the coast of Rayong, and reduce it from an initial estimate of between 20 and 50 tons to about 5.
Several planes participate in the cleaning tasks, including a C-130 from a Malaysian company, with the aim of dissolving and cleaning the crude.
The operations are also attended by the Thai Navy, the Department of Marine Resources and other government agencies.
For his part, the director of the Department of Disease Control, Opas Karnkawinpong, denied on Wednesday that the spill will contaminate local seafood.
In 2013, the island of Samed, which belongs to the province of Rayong, was affected by a spill of about 50 tons of oil, caused by a pipeline of the state-owned company PTT.
(c) EFE Agency