China to develop oil spill clean-up technology

China plans to build a laboratory to work on emergency treatment of oceanic oil spills in North China's Tianjin municipality, local authorities said Wednesday.

The lab will be located in the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City in Binhai New Area on Bohai Bay, according to the administrative committee of the Eco-City.

Funded by the Ministry of Transport waterborne transport research institute, the lab will be a testing field for research on oceanic ecological protection.

China spends about 200 million yuan ($32 million) each year on research into emergency treatment of oil spills but the technology has not been widely used due to a lack of proper testing field.

Only the United States and France have labs specializing in ocean oil spills.