Oil slick clean up effort 'in good order': Ministry

The effort to clean up the marine oil slick caused by the sunken oil tanker Sanchi is advancing "in good order", according to a statement from the Ministry of Transport.

The ministry released a statement on Monday via its WeChat account, saying that 62 vessels – including maritime law enforcement vessels, and rescue and decontamination ships – had by Sunday joined in tackling the aftermath of the collision. So far the job has been carried out in an orderly manner.

The statement added that high winds with magnitudes up to nine are predicted to affect the sea in the coming days and will bring "negative influences" to the cleaning effort.

The Panama-registered, Iranian-owned oil tanker Sanchi, carrying 113,000 tons of light crude oil, collided with the CF Crystal, a Hong Kong-registered bulk freighter, about 300 kilometers east of the Yangtze estuary on Jan 6 and sank on Jan 14.

The 32 crew members aboard the tanker - 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis - were lost.

To handle the aftermath, China had by Friday set up an efficient interministry coordination team, which includes monitoring and cleaning up the marine oil slick that was left and conducting regular search and recovery operations.