Oil Shokku for Japan

To keep its economy healthy, Japan must receive one fully loaded supertanker every hour of every day. It must also get oil from the Middle East via the shortest route and then provide vast storage facilities for the vital fuel--all without undue environmental risk. Until recently, the Japanese were confident that they could transport and store their oil safely and efficiently. Now two serious oil spills have caused shokku (shock) and raised grave doubts on both counts.

One spill occurred last week when the 237,698-ton supertanker Showa Maru ran aground at the eastern entrance to the Malacca Strait between Singapore and Malaysia on the north and Indonesia on the south. The impact tore open the ship's bottom, and an estimated 20,000 bbl. of oil leaked into the water. The five-square-mile slick that formed first threatened to smear the sparkling white beaches of Singapore's Sentosa Island, then began drifting westward toward more open water.

The spill could not have come at a worse time or in a worse place. The Malacca Strait is a key short cut in the "lifeline" route followed by most supertankers on the long voyage from the Persian Gulf to Japan. Japanese officials had just completed a survey of ship traffic through the narrow, heavily traveled waterway. As the slick was spreading, they were meeting with authorities from the Strait nations to discuss the survey and consider new safety regulations for ship traffic. Now they fear that the oil spill may lead to new restrictions on supertankers in the Strait. If that happens, many of the tankers will have to take the much longer and more expensive route through Indonesia's Lombok Strait; that will add still more to the already exorbitant cost of Japan's oil.

To add to Japan's oil troubles, a huge storage tank ruptured last month at the Mizushima industrial complex in the city of Kurashiki. About 50,000 bbl. of oil poured into the Inland Sea--a national park area as beloved as Mount Fuji--and tarred 100 miles of scenic coastline. Beyond the aesthetic damage, which has caused a national outcry, the spill has wreaked havoc with the local fishing and edible seaweed industries; losses are estimated at $40 million.

Japan is now trying to build up large oil reserves for use if Middle Eastern supplies are again cut. That means building more storage tanks, a project that encountered increasing opposition since the Mizushima oil shokku. As the influential daily Mainichi Shimbun editorialized: "The myth that storage tanks spell no pollution has now collapsed."

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