Fire of submerged oil tanker off Shanghai coast extinguished

Cleanup efforts for the "Sanchi" oil tanker has begun after the flames on the Panama-registered ship off the coast of Shanghai were extinguished on Monday.

Rescuers spray foam to extinguish flames on the stricken oil tanker Sanchi off the coast of east China’s Shanghai, Jan. 12, 2018. [Photo: Xinhua]

The fire was extinguished at 9:58 BJT (1:58 GMT), while the cleanup started soon afterward.

The Shanghai maritime search and rescue center decided to terminate the large-scale search and rescue operation at noon on Monday.

A strip of leaked oil ten nautical miles long and one to four nautical miles wide was spotted east of the ship.

The State Oceanic Administration is now trying to specify the area of the spill and its consequences.

The oil tanker Sanchi collided with CF Crystal, a Hong Kong-registered bulk freighter, about 160 nautical miles east of the Yangtze River estuary in Shanghai, on Jan. 6. It finally sank on Sunday at a location about 151 nautical miles southeast of where the collision had occurred.

The environmental impact of the sinking of the oil tanker, which carries about 136,000 tons of light crude oil, needs further assessment. The cause of the collision is still under investigation.