South Korea to Ban Single-Hull Tankers From 2011

Source: Redorbit

Seoul, Jan. 7 (Yonhap) - South Korea will ban single-hulled tankers from its waters from 2011, five years earlier than planned, as it is suffering from last month's worst-ever oil spill, a government official said Monday.

A Dec. 7 collision between a barge and the Hong Kong-registered supertanker Hebei Spirit caused 10,500 metric tons of oil to spill into waters off South Korea's west coast.

Massive clean-up efforts are still underway and the South Korean government has yet to release a damage estimate or how much the clean-up will cost.

South Korea had originally planned to prevent the spill-prone ships from entering its waters from 2015, but the oil spill last month prompted it to advance the restriction by five years, said the official at the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries in Seoul.

"We can implement the ban sooner than planned following the oil spill," the official said, asking not to be named.

The nation's oil industry and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy had wanted the restriction to be implemented from 2015, the official said.

In the first 11 months of last year, 171 out of 354 oil tankers were single-hulled ones, the ministry said.

South Korea is one of 146 nations that pledged to ban single- hull ships built before 1977 from entering their waters, starting from between 2011 and 2016, according to the ministry.

Originally published by Yonhap news agency, Seoul