oil spill

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oil spill

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Last Updated: May 28, 2025 • Article History

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oil spill, leakage of petroleum onto the surface of a large body of water. Oceanic oil spills became a major environmental problem in the 1960s, chiefly as a result of intensified petroleum exploration and production on continental shelves and the use of supertankers capable of transporting more than 500,000 metric tons of oil. Spectacular oil spills from wrecked or damaged supertankers are now rare because of stringent shipping and environmental regulations. Nevertheless, thousands of minor and several major oil spills related to well discharges and tanker operations are reported each year, with the total quantity of oil released annually into the world’s oceans exceeding one million metric tons. The unintentional or negligent release of used gasoline solvents and crankcase lubricants by industries and individuals greatly aggravates the overall environmental problem. Combined with natural seepage from the ocean floor, these sources add oil to the world’s waterways at the rate of 3.5 million to 6 million metric tons a year.

Oil-spill damage

The costs of oil spills are considerable in both economic and ecological terms. Oil on ocean surfaces is harmful to many forms of aquatic life because it prevents sufficient amounts of sunlight from penetrating the surface, and it also reduces the level of dissolved oxygen. Crude oil ruins the insulating and waterproofing properties of feathers and fur, and thus oil-coated birds and marine mammals may die from hypothermia. Moreover, ingested oil can be toxic to affected animals, and damage to their habitat and reproductive rate may slow the long-term recovery of animal populations from the short-term damage caused by the spill itself. Damage to plant life can be considerable as well; saltwater marshes and mangroves are two notable shore ecosystems that frequently suffer from oil spills. If beaches and populated shorelines are fouled, tourism and commerce may be severely affected, as may power plants and other utilities that either draw on or discharge into seawater at the shore. One of the industries most affected by oil spills is fishing. Major oil spills are frequently followed by the immediate suspension of commercial fishing, at the least to prevent damage to vessels and equipment but also to prevent the catch and sale of fish or shellfish that may be contaminated.

The immediate environmental effects of oil spills have been readily identified, but their long-term impact on the ecological system of an affected area is more difficult to assess. The cost of paying compensation to individuals and communities damaged by oil spills has been a major incentive to reduce the chances of such events taking place in the future.

Oil-spill cleanup

As yet, no thoroughly satisfactory method has been developed for cleaning up major oil spills, though the spectacular spills of the last decades of the 20th century called forth great improvements in technology and in the management of coordinated responses. Essentially, responses to oil spills seek to contain the oil and remove enough of it so that economic activity can resume and the natural recovery processes of the marine environment can take over. Floating booms can be placed around the source of the spill or at entrances to channels and harbours to reduce the spreading of an oil slick over the sea surface. Skimming, a technique that, like the use of booms, is most effective in calm waters, involves various mechanisms that physically separate the oil from the water and place the oil into collection tanks. Another approach is to use various sorbents (e.g., straw, volcanic ash, and shavings of polyester-derived plastic) that absorb the oil from the water. Where appropriate, chemical surfactants and solvents may be spread over a slick in order to accelerate its natural dispersion into the sea. Onshore removal of oil that has penetrated sandy beaches and coated rocky shores is a laborious affair, frequently involving small armies of workers wielding hand tools or operating heavy construction-type equipment to scrape up contaminated debris and haul it away.

Largest oil-tanker spills in history

Two enormously important oil-tanker spills that took place in European waters were the Torrey Canyon disaster off Cornwall, England, in 1967 (119,000 metric tons of crude oil were spilled) and the Amoco Cadiz disaster off Brittany, France, in 1978 (223,000 metric tons of crude oil and ship fuel were spilled). Both events led to lasting changes in the regulation of shipping and in the organization of responses to ecological emergencies such as oil spills. In North America the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 in Prince William Sound, Alaska, caused great ecological and economic damage, though it ranks well below the largest oil-tanker spills in history if measured by the amount of oil spilled (37,000 metric tons).

The largest oil-tanker spills in history are listed in the table.

Largest oil-tanker spills in history*
rank	ship name	year	location	spill size (metric tons)	damage
*Source of ranking and spill sizes: International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation. Sources of notes on damage: International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation; Centre of Documentation, Research and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution; and U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
1	Atlantic Empress	1979	off Tobago, West Indies	287,000	After a collision with another tanker, the Atlantic Empress caught fire and was towed 300 nautical miles out to sea, where it sank. Although its entire load of crude oil was lost, only minor ecological damage was reported on some island coastlines.
2	ABT Summer	1991	off Angola, southwestern Africa	260,000	Some 700 nautical miles off Angola, this tanker caught fire and sank with the loss of five crewmen. Its load of crude oil was lost, but no ecological damage was reported.
3	Castillo de Bellver	1983	off Saldanha Bay, South Africa	252,000	The Castillo de Bellver caught fire, broke in two, and sank. Its load of crude oil was dispersed by winds and currents. Only minor damage to wildlife and coastlines was reported.
4	Amoco Cadiz	1978	off Brittany, France	223,000	Suffering a failure of steering, the Amoco Cadiz grounded and broke in two. Its entire load of crude oil and ship fuel spilled, contaminating more than 300 km of Breton coastline and killing tens of thousands of birds and marine animals. Thousands of workers cleaned beaches and marshes in one of the largest oil-spill responses ever.
5	Haven	1991	Genoa, Italy	144,000	The Haven caught fire and broke apart. Some crude oil was recovered at sea, but some 100 km of coastline in Italy and France had to be cleaned mechanically.
6	Odyssey	1988	en route to Nova Scotia, Canada	132,000	Loaded with crude oil, the Odyssey broke in two and sank in the Atlantic Ocean 700 nautical miles from its destination. Because of the distance from land, no ecological damage was reported.
7	Torrey Canyon	1967	Isles of Scilly, off Cornwall, England	119,000	The Torrey Canyon ran aground and lost its entire load of crude oil, polluting coastlines in Cornwall as well as in the Channel Islands and in Brittany, France. Powerful solvents used in an attempt to disperse oil slicks were later determined to be more harmful to the environment than the spilled oil was.
8	Sea Star	1972	Gulf of Oman	115,000	The Sea Star, loaded with crude oil, collided with another tanker, burned, and sank with the loss of 12 crew members. No ecological damage was reported.
9	Irenes Serenade	1980	Bay of Navarino, Greece	100,000	This tanker caught fire while refueling at the port of Pylos and sank. Some spilled crude oil and ship fuel was salvaged on the sea surface, but some drifted ashore and had to be cleaned by hundreds of workers onshore and in small boats.
10	Urquiola	1976	La Coruña, Spain	100,000	Loaded with crude oil, the Urquiola ran aground in port and burned, with the loss of its captain. Some oil was salvaged from the vessel, recovered from the sea surface, or dispersed by a heavy application of chemicals, but much nearby coastline was coated with oil and debris and was only partly cleaned.
11	Hawaiian Patriot	1977	en route to Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.	95,000	The Hawaiian Patriot cracked in a storm and then burned and sank 300 nautical miles from its destination, with the loss of a crew member. Ocean currents dissipated the spilled crude oil.
12	Independenţa	1979	near Istanbul, Turkey	95,000	The Independenţa struck another ship and burned at the southern end of the Bosporus, with the loss of 43 crew members. Most of the spilled crude oil burned, though some surrounding shorelines and beaches on the Sea of Marmara were fouled.
13	Jakob Maersk	1975	near Porto, Portugal	88,000	On entering the port of Leixões, the Jakob Maersk ran aground and burned, with the loss of seven crew members. Most of its spilled crude oil either burned or was contained and skimmed from the sea surface. Some drifted onto nearby beaches, which had to be cleaned mechanically and with dispersants.
14	Braer	1993	Shetland Islands, Scotland	85,000	Suffering engine failure in a storm, the Braer grounded at Sumburgh Head and broke up. High seas dispersed most of the spilled crude oil and ship fuel, but nearby salmon farms suffered large losses of stock.
15	Khark 5	1989	off the Atlantic coast of Morocco	80,000	En route to the Netherlands, the Khark 5 caught fire briefly some 400 miles north of the Canary Islands and 120 nautical miles off the Atlantic coast of Morocco. One-quarter of its load of crude oil spilled; most of this was dispersed by wind and wave action, though some was reported to have reached beaches near Casablanca, where it was cleaned up manually.
16	Aegean Sea	1992	La Coruña, Spain	74,000	Entering port in rough weather, this tanker grounded, broke in two, and burned briefly. Most of its load of crude oil spilled. Wave and wind action dispersed part of the spill, but some 300 km of shoreline was polluted, and fishery in the area was temporarily suspended.
17	Sea Empress	1996	Milford Haven, Wales	72,000	On entering port, the Sea Empress grounded and spilled half its load of crude oil before being refloated. Much of the spill evaporated, was dispersed, or was recovered from the sea surface. An effective response was mounted to clean some 200 km of polluted shoreline.
18	Nova	1985	off Kharg Island, Gulf of Iran	70,000
19	Katina P	1992	near Maputo, Mozambique, southeastern Africa	66,700	Damaged in a storm, the Katina P was grounded just offshore and spilled fuel oil from a hole in its hull. Most of the spill dispersed, but nearby mangroves were polluted, and shorelines were cleaned manually.
20	Prestige	2002	off Galicia, Spain	63,000	After suffering hull damage in severe weather, the Prestige was towed 130 nautical miles out to sea, where it sank. Much of the spilled load of heavy fuel oil was closely tracked and recovered at sea, and affected coastlines of northern Spain and western France were cleaned in well-coordinated responses.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

This article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Augustyn.

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