Small Vietnamese tanker spills oil, 14 crew missing

HANOI (Reuters) - A small Vietnamese oil tanker capsized off the south-central coast, spilling fuel oil and leaving 14 crew missing, provincial officials said on Thursday.

The officials in Binh Thuan province said the tanker Duc Tri was carrying 1,700 tonnes of fuel oil, about 30 tonnes of which have leaked 50 km off the popular beach resort of Mui Ne on March 2.

"The search for the missing is still ongoing and rescuers are also trying to contain the oil spill," an official in the Binh Thuan province information centre said by telephone.

She said one crew member had been rescued. Binh Thuan is about 300 km northeast of Ho Chi Minh City.

The oil spill was about 2 square nautical miles, state media quoted Trinh Vu Anh, Deputy Director of the Southern Oil Spill Prevention Centre, as saying.

Last year, oil spills struck more than 20 provinces, including central Danang and south-central Nha Trang. Vietnamese media reported that nearly 2,000 tonnes of oil were scraped off the beaches and water.

The causes were mostly mysterious, according to a series of investigations, which speculated oil came from a leaking oil rig, damaged tanker or oil and gas platforms in the South China Sea.