Tag: oil

South Korea Reportedly Working with U.S. To Transfer $6 Billion to Iran

It is going to be interesting to see if the Trump administration allows this to happen:

 Iran’s Foreign Ministry called in the South Korean ambassador last month to demand payment of 7 trillion won ($6 billion) for oil it sold to the Asian country, Chosun Ilbo reported, citing officials it didn’t identify.

Iran expressed “strong regret” over Seoul’s failure to complete the payment, which has been deposited at two South Korean banks without being transferred to Iran’s central bank for years due to U.S. sanctions against the Middle Eastern country, the newspaper said. It added that other Iranian authorities including the central bank also complained.

South Korea sent a delegation to the Middle East late last month and explained that the country will cooperate with the U.S. to successfully complete transfer of the payment, it added.

Bloomberg

South Korean Ship Impounded for Violating Oil Sanctions on North Korea

This just makes me wonder how many other South Korean ships have been violating sanctions that have not been caught yet?:

A South Korean cargo vessel suspected of illicitly transferring oil to a North Korean ship is impounded at a shipyard in Busan Harbor. [YONHAP]

A South Korean cargo vessel has been impounded in Busan Harbor since last October on suspicions of violating international sanctions on North Korea, a Foreign Ministry official said Tuesday.

This is the first time a ship flying the South Korean flag has been accused of breaking United Nations Security Council sanctions imposed on the North for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. 

According to the official, the ship, named Lunis, was one of four held in South Korean ports since October for having allegedly transferred banned petroleum products or coal to or from North Korean ships. The other three vessels are reportedly registered in Togo, Hong Kong and Panama.

The shipping company working with the South Korean vessel has admitted to a transfer of refined oil to a tanker from the North through a ship-to-ship operation, the official said. 

All four ships, including the Lunis, were among dozens of foreign vessels named in a U.S. Treasury Department report released March 21 for allegedly having engaged in such illicit transfers of oil or coal to or from North Korean vessels.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Sri Lankan Man Arrested for Oil Tank Fire Says He Lit Sky Lantern Out of Curiosity

The Sri Lankan man was arrested for the sky lantern that caused the oil tank fire in Goyang, but what about the personnel at the elementary school that originally lit the sky lanterns?  Shouldn’t they also be partially to blame for lighting sky lanterns that are an obvious fire hazard?:

The Sri Lankan construction worker investigated for his involvement in the fire at a gasoline storage facility in Goyang, Gyeonggi, is released by a local police precinct on Wednesday. [YONHAP]
The man was arrested on Monday.

He told police he lit the lantern out of curiosity after he discovered two lanterns which had landed at the construction site after a ceremony at a nearby elementary school on Saturday. A gust of wind blew the lantern away just after he lit the small fuel cell inside, the man said. He chased it towards the storage station but did not see the lantern land on the grass.

“He regrets his action a lot,” said Jang Jong-ik, the chief detective of the Goyang Police Precinct, who is investigating the case, on a CBS radio program on Wednesday.

According to Jang, the Sri Lankan man has been living in Korea for three years with his younger brother. He makes around 3 million won a month.

Police concluded Monday that the man was aware that the storage facility contained flammable material and arrested him on charges of misdemeanor arson. They requested a detention warrant for him on Monday, but the prosecution dismissed the request on Wednesday, stating there is a “lack of evidence on the cause and effect of the incident.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I think the largest blame should go whoever is responsible for safety at the oil storage facility.  Just imagine the damage North Korean saboteurs could do if a simple sky lantern can do this much damage.

Oil Tank Explosion in Goyang Draws Attention Once Again to Lax Safety in South Korea

I am glad someone else noticed what I pointed out in regards to lax safety at the oil storage facility that blew up recently in Goyang:

Inspectors look around a charred oil storage tank in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, Monday. /Korea Times photo by Hong In-ki

The recent explosion of an oil tank in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province ― and the ensuing fire that consumed 2.6 million liters of gasoline over 17 hours ― has revealed the lack of adequate safety regulations at oil storage sites in the country.

The explosion on Sunday was caused by a sky lantern released by a young Sri Lankan migrant worker, about 300 meters from the oil storage site, police said.

The grass around the storage compound caught fire as the sky lantern, lifted by a burning flame inside, landed there, CCTV footage showed.

As there were no fire detectors installed outside the oil tank, the operators were unaware of the danger until the explosion came 18 minutes later, the police revealed in a briefing Tuesday.

Police suspect the explosion occurred as fire sparks from the grass made contact with oil and natural gas vapors emitted from the tank’s ventilation hatch.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but it seems it should take much more then a fire lantern to blow up a huge oil tank like this.  I try to look at this from the perspective of a North Korean saboteur.  If a sky lantern can do this much damage imagine what a coordinated North Korean sabotage attempt against the nations oil storage infrastructure could do?

Foreign Worker Arrested for Accidentally Blowing Korean Oil Storage Tank

Even if this is the cause of the fire, I have to wonder what the safety measures are around these fuel tanks if a “sky lantern” can blow one of these oil tanks up:

A blaze erupts at a gasoline storage tank operated by a state-run oil pipeline company in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, Oct. 7. Yonhap

The police have arrested a Sri Lankan national in its probe of a recent explosion at a local oil storage facility, police officials said Monday.

The arrest came one day after an explosion at the oil storage facility in Goyang, just north of Seoul, consumed a large storage tank with 2.66 million liters of gasoline, enough to fill 250 tank trucks.

The police said the 27-year-old Sri Lankan is believed to have accidentally caused the fire by releasing a sky lantern in the vicinity of the oil storage facility.

The police believe the sky lantern may have started the fire when it fell on the lawn of the oil storage facility, causing flames that later spread into the ventilation system of the oil tank, causing the explosion.

The 27-year-old is said to be a construction worker currently working at a site near the facility.  [Korea Times]

China and Russia Block US Actions To Highlight North Korean Oil Sanctions Violations

No surprises here since I would not be surprised that the Chinese and Russian operatives are actively helping them smuggle the oil:

China and Russia have reportedly put the brakes on the United States for trying to persuade the international community to stop selling refined oil to North Korea this year.

According to international news agencies, including the Associated Press and Reuters, Beijing and Moscow on Thursday blocked Washington from getting the United Nations to publicly blame the North for smuggling more petroleum products beyond the limit imposed by UN sanctions.

Their actions and claim that time is needed to investigate the U.S. allegations automatically delay any U.S. action for six months.

Last week, the U.S. requested the UN Security Council’s North Korea sanctions committee to publicly rebuke the North for violating the quota and enact a ban so countries could not export more petroleum products to the regime for the rest of the year.

U.S. documents sent to the UN committee claim that refined oil was illegally shipped to North Korea through at least 20 ships on 89 occasions between January and May, allowing the regime to secure at least 759-thousand-793 barrels so far this year, above the annual limit of 500-thousand barrels.  [KBS World Radio]

Uijeongbu City Asks ROK Defense Ministry For Additional Clean Up of the Old Camp Sears Military Base

This seems like a long time after the fact to be complaining to the ROK Defense Ministry to clean up soil pollution:

Camp Sears in 2005.

The city government of Uijeongbu, north of Seoul, has demanded the defense ministry conduct an examination into soil contamination at a former U.S. military base site in the city, officials said Tuesday.

The Uijeongbu city government bought the former Camp Sears site from the defense ministry in 2012 after the land was returned to the ministry in 2007 under a base consolidation and relocation plan, known as the Land Partnership Program (LPP).

Nine oil tanks had existed on the base to supply oil to other American bases north of Seoul. When the site was returned, most of the land was contaminated, with total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) levels up to 73 times the maximum permissible levels.

The ministry commissioned the Korea Environment Corporation to clean up the site from 2009 and 2012 before the Uijeongbu city government purchased the land as part of a project to establish an administrative complex housing public and government agencies.

Last month, the city broke ground at the site to build a fire department headquarters.

But the construction was halted recently as oil residue was found at the site. Tests were conducted on samples taken from four locations at the site, and two of them had TPH levels of 836 mg per kilogram and 585 mg/kg, which is higher than the permissible 500 mg/kg, officials said.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but the ROK Defense Ministry wants tests to be done to prove the pollution is from military activity and not from someone dumping it there after the handover.  Camp Sears was closed all the way back in 2005 and it was no secret that fuel tanks were on the base.  Here is a 2011 picture of the fuel tanks from after the closure of Camp Sears:

You would think that the city would have done a thorough inspection for pollution around the old fuel tanks.  On the old site of Camp Sears a number of government offices were built after its closure and maybe the ROK Defense Ministry is concerned that construction companies were dumping waste on that side of the camp?