Navy Fights to Stop Oil Spill from Hitting Koh Samet

Thailand’s Environment Minister reports the Navy and other oil spill response vessels are trying to contain an oil slick that has already damaged miles of the Rayong coastline before it reaches the western shore of Thailand’s famous island Koh Samet.

The Thai Navy and several other agencies are frantically working to contain the oil slick drifting towards a small bay on the western shore of Koh Samet, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-Archa told a press briefing.

Mr Varawut said that if the oil reached inside this area, it would damage the beach and the island’s coral reefs. Koh Samet is part of the Khao Laem Ya-Koh Samet National Park.

On Sunday, the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department said half of Mae Rampheung beach in Rayong was still contaminated by sludge from the underwater oil pipeline spill.

A thin layer of oil was deposited along 6 miles of the coast that was declared a disaster area by the province on Saturday.

Oil Spill Cleanup in Rayong

The Minister said the situation at Mae Ramphueng beach was getting better as workers removed the sludge from the beach. He also said the area was contaminated and unsafe and remained closed to the public.

Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) satellite imagery shows the oil spill has covered an area of 67 square kilometres of the Gulf of Thailand.

Vice Admiral Pokkrong Monthatphalin, a Navy spokesman, said aerial photos showed that most of the oil had formed as a thin film, rather than an oil slick.

On Tuesday night, crude oil leaked from a pipeline operated by Star Petroleum Refining Plc about 20 kilometres off the coast of Rayong, Thailand.

In a press release on Sunday, Star Petroleum stated it estimated the leak to be between 20,000 and 50,000 litres, down from earlier reports of 400,000 litres of crude oil.

2013 Oil Spill hit Koh Samet

In 2013 Ao Prao beach on the island of Koh Samet was covered with 50,000 litres of crude oil (around 13,200 gallons) spilt during a faulty transfer operation between an oil tanker and a seabed pipeline.

Approximately 600 soldiers, volunteers, and workers from PTT Global Chemical, an oil giant partially owned by the Thai government and implicated in the spill, are engaged in the cleanup.

In the Gulf of Thailand, there are more than 200 oil installations, which coexist uneasily in an area known as the marine breadbasket of the country.

Meanwhile, cleanup efforts continue. It’s a race against time. Every day, pictures of the spill are flashed around Thailand the world, which increases the chance that tourists — so key to the economy of the eastern seaboard — will go elsewhere for their fun.

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