Officials: Oil Spill Off SKorea Coast

By JAE-SOON CHANG

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea’s Coast Guard said Friday that the amount of oil spilled from a tanker collision was significantly less than originally estimated, with some 66,043 barrels of crude oil entering the waters off the country’s west coast.

Officials at the Maritime and Fisheries Ministry had said earlier that about 110,000 barrels had leaked from a Hong Kong-registered tanker, citing situation reports from the Coast Guards.

Jung Se-hi, a Coast Guard officer, said it reached the latest figure after obtaining more detailed information.

The accident occurred at around 7:30 a.m. when a crane-carrying vessel slammed into the 146,000-ton tanker Hebei Spirit in waters 5 miles off Mallipo beach, about 93 miles southwest of Seoul.

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Associated Press writers Kelly Olsen, Hyung-jin Kim and Jae-yeon Lim contributed to this report.