China will hold a largest ever exercise of tackling oil spill in the Bohai Sea Tuesday morning to test the country's ability of handling serious offshore oil spillage and protect oceanic environment.

The drill will mock up the explosion of a 10,000-ton oil tanker and a spill of 500 tons of oil, officials said.

A total of 500 people will participate in the exercise and 20 vessels and two planes will be dispatched to the drill held off the coast of north China's port city of Qinhuangdao of Hebei Province, about 300 km east of Beijing.