KOTABARU, KOMPAS.com - Indonesian oil tanker sank at a state-owned port in Borneo on Thursday while loading and spilled a small amount of oil, a police said. The Laut Emas sank at a port in Laut island around 5:00pm (1000 GMT), Kotabaru district deputy police chief Joko Sulistyo said.
“The Laut Emas tanker sank quickly at a port of state-owned company Pertamina while loading the oil,” Sulistyo said.
He did not elaborate on the cause but said the tanker was able to load 580 kilolitres of oil before sinking.
“It was planned to head to Berau district in East Kalimantan province to carry 600 kilolitres of marine fuel oil,” he said. Sulistyo said three out of four oil compartmentshad been locked so most of the oil was not spilled and the tanker’s eight crew members had survived.
The Indonesian archipelago of more than 17,000 islands is heavily dependent on maritime services but its safety record is poor and fatal accidents are common. Up to 335 people were killed when a heavily overloaded ferry sank off Sulawesi island in January last year.
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