OIL SPILLS

Oil Spills

Abstract

This paper will be discussing the environmental effects of oil spill and the measure taken in order to reduce its effects. An oil spill is a spill that occurs due to an accident or improper practice that pollutes the environment, especially, with petroleum products. These spills affect wildlife and fisheries of the maritime area or shoreline affected, and to the coast where there are particular virulence with the oil slicks with effects that can be very persistent over time.

Table of Contents

Abstract2

Introduction4

Oil Characteristics4

Why oil spills occur?5

Oil Spills in the Ocean5

Cleaning Oil Spills6

Environmental Sensitivity to Oil Spills6

Socioeconomic and Political aspects7

Better Leadership Required8

Measures Taken To Clean Contaminated Areas8

Chemical Treatment Dispersants8

Disposal Techniques and Oil Contaminated Wastes8

Conclusion9

References10

Oil Spills

Introduction

Oil spills are the release of petroleum into the sea or inland areas and are a major threat mainly to coastal environments. In the past century, there was a notable increase in world population, in general, and in the coastal population in particular. Hence, coastal areas' vulnerability to oil spills has increased, often to the level of potential natural and human catastrophes (Gilpin, 1995).

Oil is mainly exported by maritime traffic from oil-exporting areas, such as the Persian Gulf, Libya and Algeria, Nigeria, and Sudan in Africa to the major oil-importing countries, namely, the United States, Western Europe, Japan, India, and China. In the 1990s, some 3.4 million tons of oil, or 0.01% of the world's total annual oil production—about 3.6 billion tons/year, went into the sea (Kolstad, 2000). Approximately, 47% of this volume was from oil spills from ships, the rest from industrial plants, sea oil drillings, and natural sources (Kolstad & Freeman, 2006). Generally, major oil spills are caused by shipping accidents at sea, fires on tankers, or ship accidents on coastal barriers. The total risk, or the expected number of injuries and lives lost and amount of property damaged, is a function of the magnitude of the hazard—oil spill in this case; the number of potential economic and environmental assets to be affected, such as beaches, ports, nature reserves, and so on; and the vulnerability of the affected area.

Oil Characteristics

Crude oil is a naturally occurring complex of liquid hydrocarbon, which after distillation yields a range of combustible fuels. Four different types can be distinguished from the viewpoint of oil spill threat to the environment:

Light fuels, such as gasoline, kerosene, or fuel oil

Medium to heavy oil, such as ship fuels and light lubricants

Oil rich in paraffin, such as water-oil emulsion and heavy-oil lubricants

Residual oil, such as asphalt and heavy-oil residuals

The following are the oil characteristics that need to be taken into account in an oil spill: (a) density, which determines the dispersion and floating of the oil (heavy-oil density is above 0.9, light-oil density is below 0.865, and fuel-oil density is 0.84); (b) viscosity, or resistance to flow; (c) boiling point, which determines the rate of evaporation; (d) pour point, namely, the temperature at which oil is transformed into a gel, depending on the oil composition; (e) flash point, or the lowest oil temperature to ...