China oil spill six times size of Singapore: govt (AFP)

BEIJING (AFP) – A huge oil spill off the Chinese coast has now contaminated an area around six times the size of Singapore, state media reported Friday, as the government said it may seek compensation for the leak.

The spill from the oil field, which the United States' ConocoPhillips operates with China's state-run oil giant CNOOC, has polluted a total area of almost 4,250 square kilometres (1,650 square miles), government figures showed.

The figures, which were announced on the State Oceanic Administration website earlier this week but only reported on Friday, were almost five times the size of the 840-square-kilometre area previously reported.

The administration says that area remains worst affected by the spill, but that another 3,400 square kilometres have also been contaminated to a lesser degree by the oil.

The spill was kept secret by the authorities for several weeks before being made public this month, sparking suspicions of an official cover-up, and the disaster has triggered a furious public response in China.

State media said the government was considering seeking compensation from ConocoPhillips over the spill.

"We have made an initial plan to claim compensation from ConocoPhillips China," the business daily 21st Century Business Herald quoted an unnamed official from the State Oceanic Administration as saying.

"But whether and how it will be implemented still depends on the status of plugging the leak."

CNOOC said last week the spill was "basically under control" while ConocoPhillips told reporters the leaks had been plugged.

But on Wednesday the oceanic administration said oil was still leaking into the ocean and ordered ConocoPhillips to stop operations at several rigs in the polluted area until the source of the spill was fully plugged.

"There has been oil seeping continuously into the sea for days from platforms B and C in the Penglai 19-3 oilfield and there is still a slick in the surrounding marine areas," it said in a statement.

"Another spill could happen at any time, which has posed a huge threat to the oceanic ecological environment."

CNOOC has been slammed by state media and green groups over the spill, and it emerged on Tuesday that the firm was cleaning up another slick after a breakdown at a rig off the northeast coast.

ConocoPhillips said Thursday the spill was the equivalent of 1,500 barrels of oil.

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Anger mounts in China over oil spill (AFP)

BEIJING (AFP) – Chinese media and green groups on Wednesday slammed the state-run China National Offshore Oil Corporation and the marine watchdog for keeping an oil spill hidden from the public for nearly a month.

CNOOC, in partnership with ConocoPhillips China, a subsidiary of the US oil giant, operates an oil field in Bohai Bay, off China's eastern coast, where the massive slick was detected on June 4 but only made public on Friday.

A strongly worded editorial in the Global Times newspaper accused the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) of protecting the oil giant, while the China Daily said CNOOC had an "obligation to share information".

"We cannot help but wonder: Is the SOA a serious watchdog that exists to prevent bigger incidents from happening, or a loving parent who is over-protective of his own child?" the Global Times editorial said.

Chinese-language newspapers also accused CNOOC of covering up the incident.

Such strident criticism of a large state-owned company is unusual in the Chinese media and could be a sign that Beijing is trying to boost its green credentials by showing the public it is getting tough on environmental abuses.

CNOOC vice president Chen Bi told a news conference the company was sorry for the negative impact of the spill but denied it had tried to cover up the incident.

"Ever since the founding of CNOOC we have never covered up any major oil spill," Chen told reporters.

CNOOC earlier issued a statement saying the spill was "basically under control" and that ConocoPhillips was "responsible for daily operations" of the oil field.

The SOA said Tuesday at the first government press briefing on the incident that it was probing the US firm's role in the slick, which has polluted an area measuring more than 800 square kilometres (300 square miles).

ConocoPhillips China president Georg Storaker told the news conference Wednesday that the company had notified authorities of the slick on June 4 and its priority since then had been "clean-up work".

"Both the authorities and ourselves are trying to get all the facts on the table -- this is a joint effort," Storaker added.

In an earlier statement, ConocoPhillips said "there is no oil sheen in the Bohai Bay operating area, the source of the sheen has been contained and clean-up work is close to completion".

Greenpeace lashed out at CNOOC, saying it had not learned lessons from last year's massive oil spill near the northeastern port city of Dalian, which the group said may have been 60 times bigger than reported.

Greenpeace said 60,000-90,000 tonnes of crude may have poured into the Yellow Sea in last year's incident after two pipelines exploded at an oil storage depot owned by another state oil giant, China National Petroleum Corp.

"The lessons we learned from that were companies need to release information and disclose whatever assessment they have in a very comprehensive and transparent way as soon as possible," Greenpeace activist Li Yan told AFP.

"But it seems the company has not learned from the Dalian event."

Li Xiaoming, head of the oceanic administration's Marine Environmental Protection Department, told the government news conference on Tuesday that the slick was discovered on June 4, the state-run China News Service reported.

He said the quality of water in the spill area was now at the worst level on the administration's four-grade pollution scale.

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China probes ConocoPhillips over oil spill (AFP)

BEIJING (AFP) – China said Tuesday it was investigating US oil giant ConocoPhillips' role in a spill off its eastern coast that authorities kept hidden from the public for nearly a month.

ConocoPhillips's China unit in a partnership with the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) operates the oil field in Bohai Bay, where the spill was detected on June 4 but only made public on Friday.

"The legal and supervisory maritime departments have opened a case on this oil spill and placed ConocoPhillips under investigation," the State Oceanic Administration said in a statement, noting that evidence was being collected.

An area measuring 840 square kilometres (336 square miles) had been badly polluted due to the spill, the statement said.

On Tuesday at the government's first news conference about the spill, Li Xiaoming, head of the ocean administration's Marine Environmental Protection Division, said the slick was discovered on June 4, the state-run China News Agency reported.

Li said oil had seriously contaminated ocean waters, with the quality of water in the spill area now at the worst level on the administration's four-grade pollution scale.

ConocoPhillips, which operates the Penglai 19-3 oil field where the leak originated, had been ordered to halt operations on June 13, Li said.

The spill has been controlled, but "small leaking points" continued to discharge oil into the ocean, Li said. The total amount of oil spilled is still being calculated, he added.

Dead seaweed and rotting fish could be seen in waters around Nanhuangcheng Island in Shandong province near the site of an oil spill, the China Daily said.

"The environmental impact caused by the oil leak is long-term," the newspaper quoted a local fisheries association official as saying.

Nanhuangcheng Island is about 75 kilometres (45 miles) from the offshore oil field in Bohai Bay where the leak happened.

CNOOC tried to stem anger over its failure to warn the public about the spill, saying government authorities were aware of the incident from the start.

"We reported the spills to authorities soon after they took place and treatment of the spills is under supervision," CNOOC spokesman Jiang Yongzhi was quoted as telling the Global Times.

The spill was first reported by a member of the public on the popular Chinese micro-blogging site Sina Weibo on June 21.

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China probing ConocoPhillips' role in oil spill (AP)

By ELAINE KURTENBACH, AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach, Ap Business Writer – Tue?Jul?5, 6:44?am?ET

SHANGHAI – China's State Oceanic Administration said Tuesday it is investigating ConocoPhillips' role in a recent oil spill and still assessing possible damage to the environment.

The first spill at the Penglai 19-3 oil field off China's eastern coast was detected on June 4 and followed by another on June 17, said a report on the administration's website. The spills, which spread over 840 square kilometers (324 miles) of Bohai Bay, were brought under control by June 19, it said.

"Chinese maritime law enforcement agencies are monitoring the oil spill and will investigate ConocoPhillips in accordance with relevant laws," the regulator said, urging the company to take "urgent measures as soon as possible to reduce the environmental damage from the spill."

Local reports have cited complaints of dead fish, though they said it was unclear if the deaths were caused by the oil. They also have contended that authorities and the company failed to provide enough information on the accident.

The Penglai 19-3 oil field, China's largest offshore field, was jointly developed by ConocoPhillips China and state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp. The operator of the field is ConocoPhillips China.

Calls to ConocoPhillips seeking comment were not immediately answered. Officials at the Shandong Provincial Oceanic and Fishery Department did not respond to inquiries and calls to CNOOC rang unanswered.

China's worst reported oil spill occurred nearly a year ago, when a pipeline at Dalian, a busy northeastern port, exploded and oil poured into the sea, spreading over at least 165 square miles (430 square kilometers).

Production at the Penglai oil field has been ramped up, with output expected to average 69 million barrels a day of crude oil, over twice the average output of 33 million barrels a day in 2009, ConocoPhillips China says.

Some reports questioned whether the field's location along a very active geologic fault might be partly to blame for the spills.

The State Oceanic Administration said 3,000 meters of sea booms and other devices were deployed to help clean up the spill and the limited amount of oil on the surface as of Monday suggested no significant leaks.

The spill has raised concern over potential long-term impact to the area's very active fisheries industry.

"There are many pollutants in oil, some decompose easily while others do not. If the content is high enough, it can affect people through the food chain," said Zheng Li, an expert at the Oceanic Administration's First Institute of Oceanography, based in the eastern city of Qingdao.

But Zheng said he believed CNOOC had the capacity to resolve the problem, given its experience with earlier accidents.

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Researcher Fu Ting contributed to this report.

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