Mubasher: The Iranian oil tanker, Sanchi, which burnt and sank in East China Sea on Sunday left the largest oil slick since 1991 and caused a serious threat to marine life.

The sinking vessel, which was carrying around 136,000 tonnes of oil, produced an 8.1-mile-long and a 6.9-mile-wide oil spill, according to a statement by the Japan Coast Guard.

Clean-up efforts by patrol boats managed to relatively shrink the spill.

China’s state TV channel CCTV reported that the 1-to-4-nautical-mile wide slick kept growing and widening for hours after the Iranian tanker sank.

Experts warned that the incident may have a destructive effect on the regional marine ecosystem, especially in China and Japan.

Furthermore, rescue teams were sent to conduct a large-scale search for the ship’s crew survivors but none were found.

“There is no hope of finding survivors,” The Associated Press (AP) reported, citing the chief of Iran’s maritime agency Mahmoud Rastad.

The 899-foot ship had collided with another vessel on 6 January. Winds pushed it farther from the Chinese coast towards Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) before it exploded and sank in the sea.

By 01:20 pm GMT, Brent crude futures declined 0.21% to $69.72 per barrel (pb), while Nymex crude edged down 0.06% to $64.26 pb, hit by the accident, despite the weak US dollar.