Malaysian state oil firm Petronas has resumed production at its West Lutong offshore oilfield in eastern Sarawak state following a pipeline leak as workers continued to clean up to limit damage to the environment.
Petronas [PETR.UL} said it had commissioned a new 18-inch (46 cm) pipeline to replace the 23-year-old pipeline that leaked on Wednesday, spilling an unspecified amount of crude oil into a nearby river. "The clean-up operation is progressing well and most of the oil spill has been recovered," Petronas said in a statement. "More resources have been mobilised to speed up the clean-up operations."
It gave no details. But the local Star newspaper reported that more than 1,000 families living in three coastal villages affected by the oil spill had voiced concern about their health, with some complaining of nausea and headaches due to fumes in the air. "The oil pollutants are in the process of being cleared. Hopefully the environmental damage will be minimal," the daily's online version quoted Lee Kim Shin, a local politician, as saying on Saturday.
"The villages have piped water supply and they do not rely on the river for water supply, so this would not pose any serious danger to their health," Lee said.
A Petronas spokesman said there had been no cases of villagers being hospitalised due to the spill. In the statement, Petronas said oil production resumed on Thursday, a day after the incident. The new 13 km-long pipeline has a net capacity to transport 40,000 barrels of crude oil per day, similar to the old one. The pipeline, installed in February, was originally scheduled to start operations later this month, it said.
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