The government of south China's Guangdong Province plans to ask the operators of two vessels that collided and caused a massive oil spill near the mouth of the Pearl River to pay for damages. An assessment of the extent of the damage is currently being conducted, said an official from the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Ocean and Aquatic Products Industry on Tuesday.

A task force is now inspecting the damage to the local marine environment caused by the spill of crude oil from the December 7 collision of two foreign containerships. Its report is expected in two weeks.

"The marine accident resulted in the spillage of more than 1,200 tons of crude oil, which has seriously damaged the ocean environment and ecology in the waters of Guangdong Province," the official told China Daily.

The oil spill was the biggest ever in Chinese waters, creating a slick 17 kilometers long and 200 meters wide. Some of the crude oil has dissolved into the deep ocean water, adding to the difficulty of recovering it and cleaning it up, said the official, who declined to be named.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the cleanup was ongoing and was expected to continue for about two more days.

The accident took place in the South China Sea, near the Pearl River estuary, when a Panamanian-registered ship collided with a German vessel. No deaths or injuries were reported, but the German vessel, the MSC Ilona, sustained damage and began leaking quantities of oil from a storage hold.

China is a member state of the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage. The convention's 1992 protocol holds that the owners of ships causing oil spills are liable for damages, when the ship is carrying the oil in bulk as cargo.

It is not yet clear whether the MSC Ilona was carrying crude oil as cargo.

(China Daily December 15, 2004)