Approximately five kilometres of the Vietnam coast were coated in oil on 02 March 2015, washed ashore from an unknown source.

This oil was hazardous waste, and had to be cleared in order to remove the pollution from beaches along the coast.

The area affected by the pollution was Vung Tau city, in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, located on Vietnam's southern coast. Hundreds of people worked to clear up the oil, which could not be recycled because it was hazardous waste material. The workers recovered 30 tons of tainted sand on the day the oil washed ashore.

The incident appears to have resulted from an oil spill in the East Vietnam Sea on 27 February, but authorities have yet to discover the cause of the spill. Adding further mystery to the event, this is not the first time that oil has washed ashore on Vietnam's coast. For the past several years tides of oil have come ashore during March and April as changing winds push it toward the coast.

While this latest spill has been decontaminated with no harm to human life, authorities are attempting to determine the source and cause of these oil spills, and their extent.