By IANS
Seoul : South Korea will ban single-hull tankers from its waters from 2011, according to a senior official of South Korean Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, WAM news agency reported Tuesday.
Seoul had previously planned to ban the single hull ships – known to have caused most number of spills worldwide – from entering its waters from 2015, but the oil spill last month, worst in the country’s history, prompted it to advance the restriction by five years.
A collision between a barge and the Hong Kong-registered super tanker Hebei Spirit on Dec 7, 2007 caused 10,500 tonnes of oil to spill into waters off South Korea’s west coast.
Massive clean-up efforts are still underway and the South Korean government is yet to release a damage estimate.
South Korea is one of the 146 nations that have decided to ban single-hull ships built before 1977 from entering their waters.