Oil Spill on Fire Off China Seen Damaging Less Than Exxon Valdez
- Sanchi oil spill covers 4 square miles and is still burning
- Authorities collecting data from spill area to assess impact
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Authorities were trying to assess the environmental impact of oil that’s on fire in the East China Sea after an Iranian tanker sank and caused a spill that covered about 4 square miles.
The Sanchi was carrying 1 million barrels of condensate, a highly flammable type of light oil, with most of that supply seen burning off rather than slicking the water. While the cargo is four times larger than the heavier crude the Exxon Valdez spilled off Alaska in 1989 -- affecting about 1,300 miles of shoreline and destroying thousands of marine fauna -- the blaze off China’s coast may help minimize environmental damage.