Oil disaster in Bohaisee 2011
The 2011 Bohaisee oil spill occurred due to a leak in an offshore production facility in the Penglai 19-3 oil field.
initial situation
The state oil production company CNOOC owns the production rights for oil and gas in the Bohaisee. The US company ConocoPhilips (supplier to the German Jet filling stations) operates the production system in the Penglai 19-3 oil field. The oil field is considered to be the largest offshore oil field in China. Although it is operated by partner ConocoPhilips, CNOOC holds the majority stake of 51 percent.
According to estimates, oil production in Bohai Bay on the Yellow Sea has doubled since 2006 . The direction for further expansion is given by the central government in Beijing and China's coastal provinces are implementing the requirements at a rapid pace. The expansion of offshore oil production is set out in the five-year plan (2011–2015). Oil and gas from the sea are supposed to help meet the increasing energy needs of the world's second largest economic power.
The Gulf of Bohai borders North and South Korea and is heavily polluted by industrial facilities on land. The people of the coast of the Bohai Sea live from the breeding of the scallop , among other things . They supply the markets in the USA, South Korea and Japan with it.
Course of events
Was later reconstructed by independent experts, it was the beginning of June 2011 probably on June 4 from undisclosed until now circumstances to two leaks in the gas field Penglai 19-3 .
The authorities only presented facts six weeks after the first leak occurred: The pollution therefore covered an area of 4250 square kilometers (five times the area of Berlin ). Another 3,400 square kilometers were contaminated to a lesser extent, Chinese authorities said. Together, this corresponds to an area of around half of Schleswig-Holstein. Initially, there was only talk of 840 square kilometers.
There is no reliable information on the amount of oil that has leaked. The official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that by September 5, 2011, at least 3,200 barrels (about 508 cubic meters ) of oil and lumps of mud had leaked. ConocoPhillips China (COPC) had previously reported that 1500 to 2000 barrels (approx. 238 to 318 cubic meters) of oil had leaked from the two leaks in oil wells in June 2011.
The operator of the Penglai 19-3 oil field , the company ConocoPhilips, announced at the beginning of September 2011 that there were leaks on conveyor systems and that they had sealed them just in time for the August 31 deadline. China's regulatory agency, the State Oceanic Administration (SOA), ordered CNOOC to shut down the Penglai 19-3 oil field. The SOA took the position that a shutdown was warranted because it took the company more than two months to plug this leak.
Reactions
When the pressure from the western media increased, the central government reacted: Chinese newspapers accused the US company of having covered up the disaster. He was more interested in his own image than in protecting the sensitive ecosystem of Bohai Bay, wrote the Renmin Ribao . A spokesman for ConocoPhillips spokesman denied the allegations. The company immediately reported the accident to the responsible authorities.
For 2011, a production volume of 104,000 barrels per day (approx. 16,530 cubic meters ) was planned in the oil field , which was to be increased to 141,000 barrels (approx. 22,417 cubic meters) in 2012. In 2011, CNOOC expected its daily production to decrease by 40,000 barrels (approx. 6,359 cubic meters) due to the closure.
In July 2011, eleven Chinese environmental organizations wrote a letter to supervisory bodies of the stock markets in New York and Hong Kong , where ConocoPhillips and CNOOC are listed. They requested an investigation into the accident.
Greenpeace in Beijing expressed its disappointment that the Chinese authorities had apparently learned nothing from the previous oil disasters. There is a lack of systematic disaster management and an updated legal framework with which appropriate action can be taken against oil companies, said a representative of the organization. This is also clear from the fact that ConocoPhillips was fined a small fine of 200,000 yuan (22,000 euros) - the highest amount stipulated by Chinese law for such cases.
In 2016, Yantai fishermen sued the corporations for 170 million yuan in damages .
Extent and impact
For several months, oil streamed from the platform in Bohai Bay. The information policy of the operating company and the Chinese state authorities was heavily criticized: The authorities only reacted to pressure from Western media and environmental protection organizations on the oil spill. Satellite images from Earth observation satellites showed the extent of the oil film on the sea and on the sea floor. A MODIS / Aqua satellite image from June 14, 2011 already showed a serious oil spill in the bay.
The ecological consequences of the oil spill also hit the Chinese coast from mid-July. A 300-meter-long oil spill on a bathing beach in the northern province of Hebei was due to the incidents in Bohai Bay, reported the Xinhua news agency, citing an official. Further oil residues from the leak had been discovered on a four-kilometer stretch of coast in the northeastern Liaoning Province. The Chinese newspaper "Nanfang Dushibao" reported in July 2011 about an algae plague in the affected marine area. According to information from the leaf, the algae grow en masse near the production platforms where the oil leaked.
The environmental disaster is blamed for the significant losses of the tourism and aquafarming industries in the neighboring provinces. Fishermen log dead crabs and shrimp on the coast of Bohai Sea. The local fishermen reported to the ARD that the mussels were not growing properly in 2011, they noticed oil stains on the water and on the beach, and in some places even large oil slabs. The sea cucumber fishery has also been de facto suspended. The scallops were too small for sale in 2011, according to fishermen's reports.
According to the operating company, the clean-up work was completely completed by the end of August 2011.
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.suedostschweiz.ch/boulevard/us-konzern-stoppt-nach-olpest-frage-vor-chinas-nordostkuste
- ↑ Peer Junker: Oil Spill in the Gulf of Bohai: China's Dirty Oil Addiction. In: Zeit Online. August 16, 2011, accessed September 26, 2011 .
- ↑ Xie Chuanjiao: Oil giants face $ 24m Bohai Bay spill claim. In: China Daily . December 29, 2016. Retrieved January 19, 2017 .
- ↑ June 14 Satellite Image Shows Bohai Bay (China) Oil Spill
- ↑ Oil spill: Brown dirt reaches China's coast. In: Spiegel Online . July 20, 2011, accessed June 10, 2018 .
- ↑ The forgotten oil spill in China ( Memento from September 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive )