Taiwan's maritime authorities said they began Friday to extract nearly 300 tons of oil from the tank of a Chinese cargo ship that ran aground off the island after the passage of powerful typhoon Kong-rey.
The Chinese-flagged Yu Zhou Qi Hang was carrying three cranes from Keelung, in northeastern Taiwan, to China on Tuesday when it ran aground, Taiwanese authorities said.
A Taiwanese coast guard vessel was mobilized to rescue the 17 crew members.
The Chinese boat drifted to the rocky coast near the Yehliu Geopark, northeast of Taipei, where it ran aground.
The Yu Zhou Qi Hang's tank contained 247 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and 37 tonnes of light diesel, the coast guard said.
The Chinese cargo ship, which measures 143 meters, was built in 2012, according to the maritime monitoring site vesselfinder.com.
Authorities hope to begin recovering the oil on Friday afternoon, a Maritime and Port Bureau official told AFP.
The Ocean Affairs Council, the body in charge of maritime affairs, estimated that it would take two to three days to extract the oil.
“I saw early this morning that there was no oil pollution on the scene”said Kuan Bi-ling, minister in charge of maritime affairs, in a Facebook post on Friday accompanied by photos showing the boat partly submerged.
The ship's tank was not damaged and booms were deployed, he added.
Typhoon Kong-rey, which hit eastern Taiwan on Thursday, is one of the largest to hit the island in decades.
It left at least two people dead and forced thousands to flee their homes.
