Dalian: China's Dalian Port has received its first very large crude carrier nearly two weeks after a pipeline blast that spilled oil into the sea and forced its only 300,000-tonne berth to shut, state media said on Thursday.
The resumption of oil discharging from China-flagged tanker 'Yuanshanhu' started at midnight on Wednesday but it would be at a slower pace than before the accident after PetroChina, operator of the Xingang oil terminal, installed a temporary crude line.
A Dalian-based shipping agent told Reuters that the new crude line only allowed 5,000 cubic metres of oil flow each hour. That compares with a normal rate three times as fast, which means further potential delays in offloading arriving vessels or more cargoes being diverted.
'The idea is to lighten up the big tanker first before moving to the nearby smaller berth which can offload about 8,000 cubic metres per hour,' said the shipping official.
The vessel carries Middle Eastern crude for PetroChina's WEPEC refinery, the 200,000 barrel-per-day plant close to the site of the accident that was forced to cut production and halt fuel exports after the explosion damaged two main pipelines and a crude tank at the port. [30/07/10]
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