(Ecns.cn)-- Maritime authorities have urged ConocoPhillips China (COPC), a subsidiary of US energy giant ConocoPhillips, to clean up the oil-polluted seabed in Northeast China's Bohai Bay by Sunday.
The North China Sea Branch of the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) issued a notice on Monday, criticizing the company for not acting efficiently to clean up the leaks that began on June 4 in Penglai 19-3 oilfield, which is jointly operated by COPC and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC)， the country's largest offshore oil producer.
In the notice, the branch urged COPC to finish cleanup work by Sunday before submitting a report of its cleanup efforts by next Wednesday. The company is also required to avoid further pollution by disposing contaminants properly.
Meanwhile, new leaks have been detected.
ConocoPhillips said on Wednesday that more oil-based mud discovered on the seabed near Platform C earlier that day may push the total leaked amount to over 1,500 barrels.
In a report, China Daily quoted ConocoPhillips spokesman John McLemore Wednesday as saying the company has yet to conclude how much more oil is leaking, and will know the amount "in the next day or two."
"We're striving to meet the deadline, but it will depend on the sea currents and weather conditions. We don't want to put our divers at risk," McLemore said.
Old leaks persist
The SOA's North China Sea Branch enlisted the help of remote satellites, patrol planes and boats to survey the oilfield last week, and detected small-scale oil belts and oil seepages in Platforms B and C at the Penglai 19-3 oilfield.
According to the report, a polluted area of approximately 1,200 square km was identified around the oilfield, which has suspended operations since mid-July.
The findings show that COPC's troubleshooting and cleanup operations have been incomplete, said Cui Wenlin, director of the North China Sea Environment Monitoring Center.
The order issued Monday is the second time for the SOA to put pressure on COPC. The SOA had already ordered the company to stop the leaks, clean up polluted areas and conduct a thorough investigation to eliminate further oil spills before Aug 31.
According to a Southern Weekend report published Tuesday, two notices by the SOA in less than five days indicate that it is still too early to conclude the incident.
In response, the National Business Daily quoted COPC spokesperson Xue Dongming Monday as saying the daily spill volume is less than one liter, and the company has been putting efforts into reducing the pressure in the reservoir at Platform B, and cleaning up the seabed at Platform C, in which 167 cubic meters of oil-based drilling fluid has been cleaned.
The company estimated on July 13 that the amount of the spill was around 1,500 barrels (240 cubic meters) of oil and oil-based drilling fluids.
According to Xue, 14 divers recovered about seven cubic meters of oil-based drilling mud from the seabed around Platform C on Sunday, while the progress was slowed due to weather factors.
In addition, ConocoPhillips sent 102 people on Sunday to walk along about 96 km of shoreline on Bohai Bay, and 16 vehicles surveyed nearly 1,500 km of shoreline. They collected materials and tested them to see if any matched the chemical makeup of the oil leaking from the Penglai oilfield.
A ConocoPhillips affiliate also dismissed allegations by fishermen in Laoting, Hebei Province, who said that the scallops they had raised died because of the leak.
