An oil spill response practice recently took place in Da Nang, with the participation of representatives from the Petrolimex Da Nang, local military, police and border guard forces, and other relevant agencies.

In a hypothetical situation, a 5,000 DWT oil tanker was pumping DO oil from the My Khe Harbour into the Khue My petroleum depot, when it experienced a leakage of the pipe, causing an oil spill about 1,500m from the shore. The unexpected incident adversely affected a section of a beach in front of the East Sea Park.

Soon after, local relevant forces together approached the distressed tanker, put the oil spill under control, and removed all the spilt oil from the sea surface with specialised equipment in a bid to prevent oil from spreading along the shoreline.

The oil spill response and rescue practice was conducted carefully, and most notably, the absolute safety of all the participants was ensured.

The exercise helped the participants control such an incident in a synchronised and effective way, thereby helping to minimise the number of casualties, the negative impacts to the environment and any property damage caused by possible oil spills.