Image
© Chinafotopress/Getty ImagesA ship cleans up the leaking oil near the platform C in the Bohai Sea, China.

Beijing - The Chinese subsidiary of US-based oil firm ConocoPhillips has found a new oil leak and faces a bigger clean-up following two earlier spills in the Yellow Sea off north-eastern China, reports said on Friday.

The State Oceanic Administration said ConocoPhillips China (COPC) on Sunday reported a new leak at the C Platform of the Penglai 19-3 oilfield in the Bohai Gulf.

The new leak was about 11 metres away from the source of an oil spill reported at the platform in June, the administration said.

In a statement on Friday, ConocoPhillips said the reported spillage could be 'small oil sheens' released by its clean-up of oil-based mud (OBM) from the sea bed, rather than a new leak.

But the company admitted that it needed to clear a larger total of 2,500 barrels of OBM, with about 1,700 barrels recovered so far.

'We have already cleaned up approximately 70 per cent of the mineral-oil-based mud on the seabed and will have the additional volume cleaned up by the end of August,' Georg Storaker, president of ConocoPhillips China, said in a statement.

'We are working under the guidance of the State Oceanic Administration and in cooperation with our co-venturer, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, to ensure we are minimizing impact to the environment,' Storaker said.

The alleged poor handling of the spills provoked a storm of criticism of both the operators and the authorities.

Critics accused the State Oceanic Administration of keeping quiet about the spill for weeks until it ordered a suspension of production at the two platforms in early July.

The authorities said the pollution covered over 4,250 square kilometres, five times the size of the 840 square kilometres initially reported.

'Only trace amounts of oil have been found and recovered from shorelines,' ConocoPhillips said.

State media have carried no reports or photographs of coastal pollution from the spills.