PTTGC oil spill reaches Ban Phe Beach; tourist operators meet

[Forethat]

Perhaps you want to read my post in a neighbouring thread...

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/656930-ptt-oil-slick-spreads-to-koh-samet-beachfront/?p=6667257

[Rimbuman]

Yingluck ate some rice to show thai rice is safe to eat, now she can go to the beach to show the world it is still ok to go there.

[Soutpeel]

I wonder if the damaged PL is one of the 36" trunk lines from Erawan field or a smaller feeder line? Either way...better have some big old Plidco clamps, airlifts and water jets--(short-term fix)

Do you know which company is checking it out? Mermaid?

edit: My bad Those large trunklines are handling gas. Maybe the damaged PL is from the Chevron oilfields--Maliwan, Tantawan and Benchamas...

Clarification there are NO oil pipe lines originating from offshore gulf of Thailand to shore, only gas and condy. All oil produced in the gulf of Thailand is "tankered" offshore

The pipeline referred to can only be from the tanker offloading buoy to shore ie into the refinery.

[NCC1701A]

there are six guys cleaning the beach in that video! they are using spoons! what are the names of the people responsible for this disaster? drag them to the beach and hold their faces under the oil until they drown in their own filth.

[TheGhostWithin]

You offer up an idiotic suggestion to cut the salaries of "safety staff". Oh that's brilliant. You have no idea as to the cause of spill, but you want to punish all safety workers. The PTT board of directors is a who's who of the Thai oligarchies. These are the families that rule Thailand. This baord oversees the company and in most places would be held accountable. However, you want some poor low wage hardhat to be punished.

Despite the attempt to smear and blame the government for the actions of PTT management, your comments come off as extremely lame. Abhisit's PR efforts during the flood were just that, photo ops for political gain. The worst possible thing is to unleash unqualified and untrained "volunteers" on an environmental catastrophe. Do you really think Abhisit who has never been gainfully employed in the private sector and has no training in this matter is going to inspire people if he carries his pail and shovel to the beach? Right.

The "government" is not a supporter of PTT, but is an investor because PTT is a state owned asset. There is no point punishing PTT because the ultimate "owners" are the victims of the spill, the people of Thailand. The Royal Household also has shares in the company. PTT is Thailand. This is the real Thailand on display.

Thank you for responding, though I have first hand experience of natural disasters in recent times which I very much doubt you could compare with. In 2010 the second biggest city in my country was flattened by an earth quake, with huge amounts of damage to buildings and a number of deaths.

One thing which made an immediate difference was the fact that local students had the nous to get together while the political "leaders" were still too busy talking to act, and began cleaning up liquefaction in the streets. They continued for some time assisting fire and police in the streets - they even had a website where you could log a job and they would come by and help. 2 weeks ago we had a 6.7 magnitude earth quake in my city and there were no Police, Fire, Ambulance or Civil staff within site - it was my neighbors, the local business owners and "John and Jane from down the street" who kept myself and my fiance (from Thailand) from losing our heads.

"Mobs", as untrained as they are, do make a difference if they are directed, controlled and used in an effective manner. NONE of Thailand's political leaders have stepped up so far, on either side. This IS a political issue, because a business has managed to destroy a considerable proportion of the eastern seaboard without a measurable response from the government at this point (with exception to the announcement to "smell your fish before you eat it"). I am not going to get into a red vs yellow conversation, this issue is bigger than that and the whole short to medium term future of the Thai summer tourism industry is at stake - other countries have pollution free beaches which tourists will be happy to go to if Thailand cannot keep its own back yard clean.

The Langkawi and the eastern seaboard of Malaysia are probably looking mighty fine for a number of Christmas time tourists about now. It is time the government took leadership and governed the situation with some inspiration.

[TheGhostWithin]

Oh Boy.. Animal hair too .... ok let's see the next truck load of dogs and cats diverted from Cambodia / Vietnam & China whatever as food for all ...Hey there buddies !!... Have good news and bad news ...= saved your lives from becoming breakfast, lunch and / or dinner, that was the good news, but sorry the bad news is that now we have to kill you by drowning you in the oil slicked sea to save our sorry asses.... This is Planet earth my friends.. didn't you know that before embarking on the Ark?? !! ... Please do come and visit us again in the future when you are reincarnated or whenever !!

Annabel,

I am an avid student of Dr. Pladprasop! I believe, that if we got all dogs currently in Sakhon Nakhon, as well as those already headed for the borders of Cambodia and Vietnam, and we release them on the beaches of Rayong.. we could have them all swim in synchronization in the same direction at the same speed. The movement of water caused by their paddling would rapidly increase the flow, change the tides and send all the oil back to sea! What an idea!

[francescoassisi]

There could be an upside. i was there last month and the amount of plastic on Ban Phe beach is a disgrace and hopefully they will clean that up too. Funny a few years ago i scraped food, eg prawn shells and fish bones into the water. The locals went mad. But quite happy to leave polystyrene in the water. An explanation that it was food for crabs, birds and small fish was not understood.

I think we can be fairly sure that once the oil has been cleaned up the plastic will be replaced exactly where it was.

[NanLaew]

Motorbikes, cars and lorries use liters when pumping since it's a small measurement. Same goes for fishing boats. Ships and tankers and barges use Tonnes (metric tons) as their standard measure because of the high volumes being measured.

I think someone erred with the translation of how much was spilled from the open pipe before it was spotted. In my experience when bunkering offshore, regular flow rates are around 50 Tonnes/hr and up depending on pipe diameter and pumping effort.

So this leak went unnoticed for an hour would indicate maybe 50 Tonnes was spilled.

At a ballpark specific gravity for crude of 825 kg/m3, that's a tad over 60,000,000 liters.

I hope that makes some people feel better.

[NanLaew]

Motorbikes, cars and lorries use liters when pumping since it's a small measurement. Same goes for fishing boats. Ships and tankers and barges use Tonnes (metric tons) as their standard measure because of the high volumes being measured.

I think someone erred with the translation of how much was spilled from the open pipe before it was spotted. In my experience when bunkering offshore, regular flow rates are around 50 Tonnes/hr and up depending on pipe diameter and pumping effort.

So this leak went unnoticed for an hour would indicate maybe 50 Tonnes was spilled.

At a ballpark specific gravity for crude of 825 kg/m3, that's a tad over 60,000,000 liters.

I hope that makes some people feel better.

My bad! Should be a tad over 60,000 liters.

Don't panic!

(..... and don't quote me either)

[Thai at Heart]

Motorbikes, cars and lorries use liters when pumping since it's a small measurement. Same goes for fishing boats. Ships and tankers and barges use Tonnes (metric tons) as their standard measure because of the high volumes being measured.

I think someone erred with the translation of how much was spilled from the open pipe before it was spotted. In my experience when bunkering offshore, regular flow rates are around 50 Tonnes/hr and up depending on pipe diameter and pumping effort.

So this leak went unnoticed for an hour would indicate maybe 50 Tonnes was spilled.

At a ballpark specific gravity for crude of 825 kg/m3, that's a tad over 60,000,000 liters.

I hope that makes some people feel better.

My bad! Should be a tad over 60,000 liters.

Don't panic!

(..... and don't quote me either)

60 tons is about 60 cubic, give or take a bit for density. You think 50 cubic can make a slick this big.

Ie. 50 cubic is 50,000 litres. An Olympic swimming pool is 2,500,000 litres. 50 cubic should have been contained within the booms that they should have in place already during a fuel transfer......

Did they have booms in place?

[alphaflight]

I don't know if the Thai government has reached out for help, if not they should think about swallowing their pride and doing so; I doubt they are as equipped as some first world countries, to handle this type of disaster. PTTGC executives should be up to their elbows on the beach cleaning up this mess.....

Well, Well surprise; I said it, and now they've finally come to their senses................