Tag: oil spill prevention

Oil spill incidents seem to occur more nowadays. Thinking of major oil spills, there were three major ones that took place in the US, starting from Santa Barbara in 1969, Exxon Valden in 1989 and Deepwater Horizon in 2010.

Clean Arctic Alliance published a statement in response to the Viking Sky incident, stressing the possibility of an oil spill which was fortunately prevented. Yet, in light of similar incidents, the Alliance focused on banning HFO use and carriage in Arctic waters.

​Guyana is the latest country to benefit from IMO’s work to strengthen oil spill response capacity in the Wider Caribbean Region. The REMPEITC-Caribe training workshop that took place from 18 to 20 of March assessed Guyana's oil spill readiness programme.

According to the prefecture of Gironde, the latest estimates indicate that the oil spill from from the sinking of 'Grande America' will not reach the coast during this week. However, it warned that debris and containers could arrive in the coastline quicker. However, due to the many hazards and weather developments, the estimate of potentially affected coast points is the subject of daily assessments.

After the initial confirmation of oil spill coming from Grande America's sinking, French authorities have sighted another oil slick originating from the sunken RoRo in the Bay of Biscay. The French Navy and Spain's maritime search and rescue agency revealed that there is a third oil spill in the area of the incident, covering an area of about 5 km2.

On Sunday, March 3, the North Atlantic Kairos, an oil supply tanker, experienced an oil spill in Port aux Basques Harbour. As Marine Atlantic informed, officials have contained the oil spill, while a boom has also been deployed. North Atlantic is investigating the cause of the spill, which is not expected to impact Marine Atlantic's crossings when weather conditions improve and operations resume.

The U.S. Interior Department's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) decided to withdraw several offshore safety rules that were enacted under the Obama administration-era Well Control Rule. According to data provided by BSEE the department has been issuing hundreds of waivers for a number of these rules, prior to their repeal.

The US Coast Guard informed that it responded to a sheen reported from a container ship moored at the Matson Terminal in Oakland, on 22 February. The crewmembers of the ship noticed the sheen on 21 February, shortly after mooring. The Matsonia crew started the ship's vessel response plan, informed the US Coast Guard and the National Response Center of the sheen and placed containment boom around the ship to contain the sheen.

The number of marine pollution and oil spill accidents in South Korea reported a rise during 2018, the Korea Coast Guard informed. Namely, a total of 288 accidents of sea pollution were reported in the country in 2018, an increase of 6%, or 271, from the previous year. The amount of pollutants that leaked into the sea in the accidents increased as well by 9% to 251 kiloliters in 2018.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has published a circular to regulate marine oil spill cleanup and recovery efforts. Specifically, a preliminary investigation on the level of pollution will have to be made within the first 10 days after the report of an oil spill. The circular will apply from March 12.