A presentation about the collision in Singapore

1. Oil Tanker Collision in Singapore By: Muneera Al Mana

2. What happened??? A determined amount of 2,000 tons of crude oil has been leaked in to the sea after a collision of tankers in the straits of Singapore in May 25th 2010. The Malaysian registered tanker “BungaKelana 3,” carrying light crude oil and condensate, was damaged with a 10 meter tear in the left side of the tanker when “MV Wally”, registered in St. Vincent, crashed right into it causing a leak of crude oil in the sea.

5. How are people dealing with this??? Well-known worldwide new agencies and facilities are only stating the facts about what happened. They have not mentioned what has been done to help the situation and the impacts of this. BBC, a major worldwide news company, has only described the situation leaving out what has been done. they have quoted Malaysian coastguard: "The collision caused a 10-metre (yard) tear in the left side of the tanker and 2,000 metric tonnes of crude oil has spilled into the sea where the collision occurred," Cmdr Abdul Hadib bin Abdul Wahab of the Malaysian Coastguard told Reuters. They left out his words on what has been done to remove the oil and help the situation.

6. Another news agency, The New York Times has only focused on the negative impacts happening from this incident. They excluded mentioning a description of the situation in general and the actions that are taken to remove the oil. “The damage appeared to be limited to one compartment in the double-hulled tanker, the BungaKelana 3, with the spill amounting to about 18,000 barrels.” “The spill occurred about seven miles offshore, southeast of the Changi East complex, the home of the Singaporean Air Force.”

7. A smaller news company, Pattaya Daily News, originating in south east Asia near Singapore and Malaysia, have been writing numerous articles explaining how the government and the companies are trying to remove all of the oil from the sea. They are focusing more on what Singapore is doing to help the situation and prevent the oil from leaking outwards towards the coastline. The article from that source are biased because they do not give you the full effect of what has happened and they only tell the story from one point of view. “The emergency response teams, consisting of 20 vessels, have been rapidly spreading oil dispersants on the spill and have surrounded the area with oil retaining booms in continued efforts to prevent the oil from reaching the coastline.”

8. Impacts There are so many negative impacts that are left behind from this incident. The country of Singapore has been hugely affected economically and environmentally. The country has been affected economically because they need to contain the oil by using at least 20 emergency oil spill response vessels. These response vessels can cost up to 7 billion US dollars, therefore the country will loose a lot of money. Providing oil dispersants and oil retaining booms will also result in a decrease in Singapore’s economy. The BungaKelana 3 (oil tanker) was also severely damaged so fixing the tanker and making sure everything is secure will decrease the country’s level of economy.

9. Now that the oil has leaked into the sea the environment surrounding it has been dangerously polluted. Marine creature cannot escape from oil slicks on the sea bed, it ends up sticking to their skin and never coming off. Sometimes it kills these creatures, but if it doesn’t then their ability to reproduce is deformed for life. Seals, dolphins and whales are not the only creatures to get effected by the oil spills micro organisms like clams and mussels are very vulnerable too. The oil sometimes clogs the blow holes of dolphin and whales making it impossible for them to breathe. The oil also covers up fur of seals making them more likely to get hypothermia. The oil on the sea bed contaminates all of marine creatures food supplies.

10. Suggestions, Solutions and Recommendations To prevent tanker collisions from happening, companies should bulletproof their oil tanker so that it is very hard for the oil to leak out. Also they can put the supplies like crude oil in barrels and make sure they are bulletproofed too. Put the oil barrels in another container so that it has a smaller chance of leaking in to the sea. You can also reduce the speed limit on the sea so that even if a collision happened it would not be as hard as it was if both were speeding. The damages will be less therefore will help the country economically when fixing the damages. We can also reduce the amount of our usage for oil so that the chances of collisions are not more likely to happen.

11. "Answers.com - How Does Oil Spills Impact on Environment." WikiAnswers - The Q&A Wiki. Web. 12 June 2011. <http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_does_oil_spills_impact_on_environment>. "BBC News - Oil Leaks from Tanker Collision off Singapore." BBC - Homepage. Web. 12 June 2011. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10151722>. McDONALD, Mark. "Tanker Collision Causes Oil Spill Off Singapore - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 25 May 2010. Web. 12 June 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/world/asia/26sing.html>. "Oil Spills and the Environment - How Do Oil Spills Damage the Environment?" Environmental Issues - News and Information about the Environment. Web. 12 June 2011. <http://environment.about.com/od/petroleum/a/oil_spills_and_environment.htm>. "Tanker Collision Causes Singapore Strait Oil Spill Nightmare | Pattaya Daily News - Pattaya Newspaper, Powerful News at Your Fingertips." Pattaya Daily News - Powerful News at Your Fingertips. Web. 12 June 2011. <http://www.pattayadailynews.com/en/2010/05/26/tanker-collision-causes-singapore-oil-spill-nightmare/>. "What Could Help Prevent Oil Spills?" The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com. Web. 12 June 2011. <http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1121/p25s01-woeu.html>.

12. The BungaKelana 3 the ship that got damaged and leaked the oil The MV Wally the ship that crashed into the oil tanker