Tar samples collected to find source of spill

The department also proposed to the provincial governor that local administrative bodies be allowed to use the money received as royalties for oil-drilling to clean up the site.
Songkhla Natural Resources and Environment Office head Jintawadee Tippayamethakul disclosed that after the tar balls were found on the beach in the area between Satingpra district and Ranot district, a Mineral Fuels Department team gathered the samples to trace the oil source. Some 17 kilometres of beach area had been contaminated with the oil from an unknown source since Tuesday. “In order to find the source of the oil spill, the samples will be sent to the lab in Denmark for identity verification tests. It will take about two weeks to know the result. Then we will match the result with oil fingerprints from every petroleum drilling rig within the Gulf of Thailand,” Jintawadee said. She disclosed that local municipalities were in charge of the cleanup effort and the operation would be funded by royalties, which the Mineral Fuels Department gives every year to every local municipality on the shore of the Gulf of Thailand.