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China’s Dalian Port Reopens Terminals as Cleanup of Oil Spill Continues

21 July 2010 03:12 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Most of northeast Chinaâ€™s Dalian port resumed operations today after a pipeline explosion caused an oil spill that spread across more than 183 square kilometers (70 square miles) of sea, APA reports quoting bloomberg.com website.
Dalian Port (PDA) Co. said all its terminals in the Xingang and Dayaowan areas resumed operations. The companyâ€™s crude oil terminal remained closed, it said in a statement to Hong Kongâ€™s stock exchange today. Navigation through the harbor resumed from 5 p.m. local time today, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The cleanup of the spill has been delayed by heavy rain and strong winds that forced many of the 800 fishing boats that joined the effort to withdraw, Xinhua reported. Authorities are aiming to finish the work before July 24, Xinhua said.
â€œDalian has been experiencing heavy rain which will put additional pressure on restoring port operations,â€ Jeffrey Landsberg, president of New York-based Commodore Research, said in an e-mailed statement today. â€œMore dry bulk vessels are still expected to become congested at the port.â€
The July 16 explosion was caused after a â€œcatalystâ€ was added to a crude-oil storage tank, according to the Ministry of Transport. The error was made when an oil tanker was unloading at Dalian port on July 16, according to statement on the transport ministryâ€™s website, which didnâ€™t say what the substance was or who was responsible for the incident.
Restricted Access
Dalian Port, which operates Chinaâ€™s largest crude-oil terminal, said ground operations at its oil terminal restarted today and the company will take â€œactive measuresâ€ to resume vessel loading and unloading operations in the â€œnear future.â€
Local authorities had restricted access to the port as part of the cleanup efforts. The oil terminal was closed and a PetroChina Co. refinery was forced to draw on crude stockpiles, said a company official in Dalian, who couldnâ€™t be named because he isnâ€™t authorized to speak to the media. Chinaâ€™s grain market may also be â€œslightly affectedâ€ by the restricted port access, the China National Grain & Oils Information Center said.
China National Petroleum Corp. had diverted a very large crude carrier away from the port, Reuters reported, citing an unidentified shipbroker. The oil company has four other tankers of the same class scheduled to arrive in Dalian in the next two weeks and may also have to divert those, the report said.
Shipments Reduced
Shipments of oil from Dalian to southern China have been reduced, Xinhua reported. PetroChinaâ€™s shipments are usually 30,000 tons to 50,000 tons a day, Xinhua reported, citing Chu Jiewang, an analyst at Shanghai-based C1 Energy Co.
Southern Chinaâ€™s refiners are reducing operations and processing mostly inventory, Xinhua said. At least three China National Petroleum subsidiaries have reduced sales of refined oil in the region, according to the report.
Dalian Port said the scale of the damage and losses caused by the explosion and its impact on the companyâ€™s operations are still being assessed. Some ancillary facilities including pipelines and control systems were damaged and part of the handling and storage operations for crude oil have been â€œtemporarily affected.â€
Handling and storage for refined oil and liquefied chemicals werenâ€™t affected by the blast, according to the companyâ€™s statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange today.
The Ministry of Transport ordered harbors across the country that offload oil to check their operations and halt operations at any deemed to be unsafe, according to a statement on its website yesterday. Dalian Port said it is conducting a â€œthorough inspectionâ€ of its facilities at the oil terminal.
The company has started the process of claiming on its insurance policies for the accident, according to todayâ€™s statement. Its shares rose 2.67 percent in Hong Kong today after dropping 5.06 percent, the most in two months, yesterday, the first trading day after the explosion was reported.