FAQ: Oil Spills in History

Q. Where can I get information about the Exxon Valdez oil spill?

A. We've made a list of some places on our Web site and other Web sites to check.

Q. I need to do a report on an oil spill other than the Exxon Valdez (my teacher says it's too popular!). Can you please tell me where I can get information about other important oil spills?

A. You can use our Historical Incidents Search Page on our IncidentNews Web site to find information about many significant oil spills worldwide. Our Image Gallery also features photos of Major Oil Spills, along with a little information about each of those spills. In addition, you can read some of our Oil and Hazardous Materials Response Reports, which describe oil and chemical spills that we responded to between October 1992 and September 1999, or you can download our Oil Spill Case Histories document, which summarizes significant U.S. and international spills between 1967 and 1991.

Elsewhere on the Web, you can see the U.S. Coast Guard Annual Data and Graphics on spills in the U.S.; Environment Canada's Summaries of Spill Events in Canada and its worldwide Tanker Spills database; the Australian Maritime Safety Authority's list, Major Oil Spills in Australia; and the University of Wales Swansea Web site about the 1996 Sea Empress Oil Spill in Wales. You also can find information about major oil spills in France on the Cedre (Center of Documentation, Research, and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution) Web site, including the Erika and Amoco Cadiz spills in Brittany, as well as brief descriptions of significant oil spills worldwide since 1967. The International Tanker Owners Federation (ITOPF) Web site offers updates on current major spills, as well as links to oil spill Case Histories. For more information, we suggest extending your information search to your local city or university library.

Q. Where do most oil spills happen in the world?

A. Oil spills happen all around the world. Analysts for the Oil Spill Intelligence Report, who track oil spills of at least 10,000 gallons (34 tons), reported that spills in that size range have occurred in the waters of 112 nations since 1960. But they also reported (Etkin 1997) that oil spills happen more frequently in certain parts of the world. They identified the following "hot spots" for oil spills from vessels:

• the Gulf of Mexico (267 spills)
  
• the northeastern U.S. (140 spills)
  
• the Mediterranean Sea (127 spills)
  
• the Persian Gulf (108 spills)
  
• the North Sea (75 spills)
  
• Japan (60 spills)
  
• the Baltic Sea (52 spills)
  
• the United Kingdom and English Channel (49 spills)
  
• Malaysia and Singapore (39 spills)
  
• the west coast of France and north and west coasts of Spain (33 spills)
  
• Korea (32 spills)

In addition, U.S. Coast Guard analysts have prepared some graphs and charts, Cumulative Data and Graphics for Oil Spills, which show the frequencies of oil spills in different regions of the U.S. and its coastal zone.

Reference: Etkin, D.S. 1997. Oil Spills From Vessels (1960-1995): An International Historical Perspective. ISBN 1-57484-044-4. Cambridge, MA: Cutter Information Corporation. 72 pp.

Q. Do most oil spills originate from tankers?

A. Information from several sources tells us that the answer to your question is: No, as long as you consider spills of all sizes. But tanker accidents have accounted for most of the world's largest oil spills. They are less frequent than other kinds of oil spills, such as pipeline breaks, but typically involve large volumes of spilled oil relative to other kinds of oil spills. (To learn more about oil and chemical tankers, see the UN Atlas of the Oceans Web page, Tankers and Passenger Ships.)

Here are some sources of information on this topic:

Analysts for the Oil Spill Intelligence Report track oil spills of at least 10,000 gallons (34 tons). In their annual "International Oil Spill Statistics" report for 1999, they reported that in that year--the latest year for which they have analyzed data--about 32 million gallons of oil spilled into the water or onto land, in 257 incidents. Of those incidents, only 11 were spills from tankers, accounting for about 6.6 million gallons, or about one-fifth of the total volume of oil spilled. Twenty-five of the 257 spills were from barges and other kinds of vessels, such as freighters (totaling 1.5 million gallons). Eighteen spills were from trucks or railroad trains (totaling about half a million gallons). The largest number of spills, and the largest volume of oil spilled were from accidents involving pipelines or fixed facilities (131 pipeline spills, totaling about 18.8 million gallons; 66 spills from facilities, totaling about 4.7 million gallons). The percentages of oil spilled from different sources vary greatly from year to year; in some years, tanker accidents represent the largest single source of spilled oil, but only in a very few years is it the case that most of the oil spilled (in significant spills) during that year came from tankers. DeCola (2000) presents a graph showing the volume of oil spilled from various sources, including tankers, from 1978 to 1992.

However, tanker accidents have been the cause of most of the very largest oil spills. The Oil Spill Intelligence Report analysts also have found that of the 66 spills in which at least 10 million gallons (34,000 tonnes) of oil were lost, 48 were from tankers. Eight were from fixed facilities, especially storage tanks, five were from production oil wells, three were from pipelines, and two were from other kinds of cargo vessels.

Note that the above statistics are only for relatively large oil spills. Researchers from NASA and the Smithsonian Institution have estimated the amounts of oil that spill from small and large sources. The graph on their Web page, Oil Pollution, shows that much more oil is estimated to spill into the water from small sources than from major accidents. In Threats to the Health of the Oceans, they also estimate that just 5% of the oil that spills into the ocean comes from major oil spills. Check the State of Alaska's FY 05 Response Summaries to see that most accidental oil spills are much smaller than the major incidents that you hear about on the news.

You can see some more oil spill statistics at the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF) Historical Data Web page.

Reference: DeCola, E. 2000. International Oil Spill Statistics: 2000. Arlington, MA: Cutter Information Corporation.

Q. What was the biggest oil spill in the world? Where and when did it happen, and what were its consequences?

A. According to the Oil Spill Intelligence Report, the biggest so far was the Arabian (Persian) Gulf spill in 1991. You can find very good overviews of the effects of that spill in the August 1991 and February 1992 issues of National Geographic magazine.

Q. When was the first oil spill in the United States?

A. Perhaps no one knows for sure just when the first U.S. spill happened. Here are some suggested possibilities from our oil spill experts:

• Oil from natural seeps was in the water before the first spills from oil production. In the early 1500s, the Portuguese-born explorer Juan Cabrillo sailed into what is now Santa Barbara, California, and remarked on the oil he saw bubbling out from a natural seep. He reported that the Chumash Indians scooped and skimmed up the oil, which they used to waterproof their boats.
  
• The first oil well in the U.S. was drilled in 1859 in an area of natural oil seeps along Oil Creek, near Titusville, Pennsylvania. It's possible--although we don't know for sure--that the first oil spills from oil production may have occurred when crude oil was first transported from this well.
  
• The U.S. Fish Commission (NOAA's precursor) steamer Albatross reported a massive oil slick extending from L.A. south to northern San Diego County around 1889 or 1890. We don't know the source of this slick.
  
• In the late 19-teens, hopane, a chemical "signal" of spilled oil, began appearing in the sediments of Puget Sound, Washington State, indicating that oil had been spilled into the Sound. Hopane's appearance peaked during WWII and has since been slowly declining.
  
• After passage of federal legislation in 1925, the California Fish and Game Department began a major effort to reduce spills and leakages from coastal oil drilling operations in California, which at that time were common. In 1929, for example, a 600-barrel spill covered 9 miles of Ventura County Beach. By 1930, spills from ships were considered a greater menace than shoreline leakage.

Our thanks to Gary J. Green for help with this question. If you discover more clues to help answer it, please let our Webmaster know!

Q. I'd like some information about an oil (or chemical) spill that happened recently in my state (within the U.S.). Where can I go for that information?

A. Check with the Regional Response Team (RRT) for your region. Within each region of the U.S., the RRT is responsible for planning and coordinating regional preparedness and responses to oil and hazardous materials releases. To find the RRT for your region, visit the U.S. National Response Team (NRT) Web site. In the navigation links in the upper right section of the page, click the "RRTs" (Regional Response Teams) link. On the map, click within the appropriate region to link to your RRT's Web site.

Also, your state's environmental agency may track spills in your state. To find a point of contact, visit your state's Web site (the Library of Congress keeps a list of all state government Web sites), and look for the link to your state's environmental agency (if you know its name), or for a keyword like "environment." (Example environmental agency names are the Washington Department of Ecology and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.)

Finally, a source of information about many spills that happened at least a year or so ago is our Historical Incidents database (see the link, Historical Incidents Search Page).