A fishing boat berths in seawater polluted by crude oil in Dalian's Xingang Harbor Monday.Photo: CFP

By Deng Jingyin in Dalian and Chen Rui in Beijing

The cleanup of oil off the port city of Dalian, caused by pipeline explosions Friday night, is expected to take at least 10 days, State Oceanic Administration officials said Monday, but environmentalists say the ecological implications of the spill could last more than 10 years.

The amount of crude oil that had spilled into the sea was still unknown Monday, but China Central Television reported that the leak was estimated at 1,500 tons.

More than one-third of the crude spilled had been collected as of Monday afternoon, three days after the explosions occurred. Marine safety departments had collected 260 tons of leaked oil from a 10-square-kilometer area of the most seriously polluted seawaters off Xingang Harbor, while fishery departments claimed to have collected another 280 tons from less-polluted areas.

Luan Yuxuan, deputy director of the Dalian City Oceanic and Fishery Administration, said Monday that strong onshore winds had helped contain the dark brown belt of pol-luted area to 45 square kilometers Sunday, from an original 50 square kilometers.

Liu Fenglin, director of the press office of the North China Sea Branch of the State Oceanic Administration, said that the cleanup wouldn't be finished within 10 days, denying previous reports.

He stressed that the tide will carry the oil, making the polluted area larger, but the cleanup vessels must start in the most contaminated area.

The Dalian municipal government had vowed to finish the work within five days to avoid further contamination of the sea.

So far, 34 oil-cleaning vessels have been mobilized to load oil-absorbing and dispersant materials in the most polluted area, and more than 800 fishing boats have also joined the campaign to clean up the widespread oil.

Xingang Harbor was closed Monday for the investigation, with a noticeable yellow cordon blocking off the oil-tank area, and no media access was granted. The paths leading to the beach were also guarded.

The Global Times found that the oil had covered stones and washed up onto the sandy beaches near the explosion, blanketing some surfaces in many centimeters of crude.

Thick black smoke could also still be seen gushing Monday from the oil tank where the explosion occurred.

"All major fires at the site have now been extinguished. The oil left in the oil tank is being burnt in order to clean the site," a port staff member working on the scene told the Global Times, refusing to give his name.

Nearly 100 fire engines were stationed at Xingang Harbor to prevent further complications. A fireman surnamed Tian, with his face covered in oil, said that he had been working for three days and nights with little sleep.

Ecological impact

A climate and energy project officer for Greenpeace, Yang Ailun, told the Global Times Monday that it is impossible to totally clean up the oil that has leaked, noting that the long-term impact on the environment may last more than a decade.

"People can still feel that the sea water off Alaska is oily due to the oil spill in 1989 caused by Exxon Mobil Corporation," Yang added.

The Dalian spill poses a huge threat to marine ecology in the area, Bao Jia, a PhD candidate studying environmental sciences at Dalian Maritime University, said Monday.

"The oil is even one-meter thick in some areas, which may result in serious pollution in the Yellow Sea," he told the Global Times.

A fisherman surnamed Li worried that his business would suffer from the leak.

"It is not fishing season, so it is hard to tell how much worse my business will be, but there is no doubt that a huge number of fish will be killed," he said.

His family has been fishing in the area for more than 20 years, and they've seen the impact of environmental pollution on the fish industry in recent years.

"This time is just another extreme example," he added.

But Qianri Sea Food Corporation, based in Dalian, which owns a fish farm in the north of Dalian Bay, said Monday that the spill was far from its farming area.

"It didn't affect our products, which are mainly exported to Japan," Ye Qinglin, the marketing manager of Qianri, told the Global Times Monday.

Ongoing investigation

A Dalian municipal government press officer told the Global Times Monday that the explosions were being carefully investigated.

The 300,000-ton crude oil tanker, owned by Singapore Pacific Petroleum Pte, has been temporarily seized, Sun Benqiang, deputy chief of the municipal work safety bureau was quoted by Beijing News as saying.

The investigation team established Sunday by Liaoning officials said the explosion was triggered when a catalyst was added to the pipelines as the tanker was unloading oil Friday.

They haven't yet said who should be held responsible for the operation.

The pipelines that exploded were owned by China National Petroleum Corp.

According to the oil and gas pipeline protection law that was passed in June, when oil leaked from pipelines pollutes the environment, the enterprise that owns the pipelines is held responsible for the cleanup.

But the enterprise keeps the right to seek compensation from the third party that is proved to have caused the leak.

Liu Linlin and agencies contributed to this story