SINGAPORE: The oil leak at Shell’s refinery at Pulau Bukom has stopped and clean-up of oil sheens spotted off the island has been completed, government agencies said in a joint statement on Saturday (Dec 28).
“Efforts by Shell to locate the source of the leak in the oil processing unit are ongoing,” they added.
Giving a timeline of events, the government agencies said on Saturday that the oil sheens were discovered by Shell at around 9.30am on Thursday, and were reported to MPA and NEA at 11.58am and 1.15pm respectively.
“Initial assessments on Dec 26 (Thursday) determined the scale of oil sheens to be minor, with no risk to public safety or environmentally sensitive areas, given the containment measures Shell had implemented,” the agencies said.
“NEA is investigating the incident with MPA, and actions will be taken if any wrongdoing or lapse is discovered,” said the agencies.
Shell’s facility on Pulau Bukom is its only energy and chemicals park in Asia.
“The leak in Shell’s oil processing unit is a different system from Shell’s earlier slop pipeline leak on Oct 20,” said the agencies, referring to the incident where about 30 to 40 metric tonnes of “slop” – a mixture of oil and water – leaked from a Shell land-based pipeline into the sea between Bukom Island and Bukom Kecil.
Shell was being investigated for allegedly taking more than seven hours to notify the authorities about the leak on Oct 20. NEA had also directed Shell to carry out a comprehensive pipeline integrity check across their Bukom plant.
