5-Year Low in Tanker Spills

Half-way into this decade and the downward trend in oil spills from tankers is sustained. For the last two and a half decades the average number of incidents involving oil spills from tankers has progressively halved, with the current figures showing the lowest yet, at less than two per year.

At a time when focus on protecting the marine environment is high, this trend should provide encouragement to tanker owners, states the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF). It is also a testament to the ongoing work by industry and governments to maintain high standards of operations in sea-borne transportation.

During 2014, ITOPF recorded one large spill of bitumen (~3,000 MT) from a tanker in the South China Sea, and four medium spills of various oil types, totaling five spills of seven tons and over. A number of tanker incidents reported in the media in 2014 involved fire and explosion, where potentially significant quantities of cargoes and bunker fuel burned. The cargoes involved included condensate, diesels and fuel oils.

ITOPF maintains a database of oil spills from tankers, combined carriers and barges. This contains information on accidental spillages since 1970, except those resulting from acts of war.

The data held includes the type of oil spilt, the spill amount, the cause and location of the incident and the vessel involved. For historical reasons, spills are generally categorized by size, <7 tons, 7-700 tons and >700 tons (<50 bbls, 50-5,000 bbls, >5,000 bbls), although the actual amount spilt is also recorded. Information is now held on nearly 10,000 incidents, the vast majority of which (81 percent) fall into the smallest category i.e. <7 tonnes. This figure is still far below the averages for previous decades and is in line with the trend of the last four years.

Information is gathered from both published sources such as the shipping press and other specialist publications, as well as from vessel owners, their insurers and from ITOPF’s own experience on site at incidents. Unsurprisingly, information from published sources generally relates to large spills often resulting from collisions, groundings, structural damage, fires or explosions, whereas the majority of individual reports relate to small, operational spillages. Reliable reporting of small spills (<7 tons) is often difficult to achieve.