Oil leak risk rises along coast

BEIJING - Maritime safety officials warn that China's coastline is increasingly at risk of oil spills and pollution from the booming offshore drilling and more frequent oil shipping.

As oil resources on land gradually decrease, the energy-thirsty nation is looking increasingly to the ocean for oil, and the Bohai Sea and South China Sea are now packed with drilling platforms, Zhai Jiugang, head of the duty office of China Maritime Search & Rescue Center, said at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

For example, 15,900-square-kilometer Bohai Bay is dotted with more than 100 offshore platforms, he said.