Tests rule out new Bohai Bay spill

Tests conducted by a marine environment watchdog have ruled out another Bohai Bay oil spill.

Fears of a spill grew after fishermen in East China's Shandong province detected oil slicks on April 10.

The North China Sea Branch of the State Oceanic Administration has released three statements on its official website since then.

The statement said that oil samples taken from offshore and coastal areas in Hebei and Shandong provinces were found not to originate from Bohai Bay.

Tests showed that the slick was made up of fuel oil.

However, a small amount of oil from the Bohai Youyi, a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel operated by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation was found.

A worker in the China National Offshore Oil Corporation told China Business News on Wednesday that no oil spill was detected in their oilfields and the company is investigating the operation of the Bohai Youyi vessel.

Gao Deli, professor at the China University of Petroleum in Beijing, said FPSO vessels are common in offshore oil exploration.

The 215-meter-long and 31-meter-wide Bohai Youyi vessel is China's first such vessel and was built in 1989.

But some fishermen were not satisfied about the results.

Wang Zhongguo, a fisherman in Changdao county in Shandong, said oil slicks were still there and were killing scallops and shrimps.

Bohai has suffered from overdevelopment and oil exploration for years. In June 2011, an oil spill released more than 720 barrels of crude oil and 2,610 barrels of oily mud into the bay, polluting 6,200 square kilometers of water, according to estimates.

The 2012 marine environment report released by the administration in March said environmental impacts from the oil spill still existed.