Final Research

Introduction

In oil industries, the oil spill can cause severe effects to the surrounding water and wildlife depending on the amount of oil spilled. The oil spillage can occur due to the released amount of oil and petroleum into the sea and the breakdown of oil tankers. To minimize the bad effect and protect the environment, varied cleanup approaches are followed depending on the environmental conditions, amount of spills, financial aid offered public demand and legal liability among others. 

The worst oil spill in United State history was in March 24th 1989, when the tanker Exxon Valdez hit an undersea reef and spilled over 10 million gallons of crude oil into the water. This occurrence had severe economic and environmental consequences with the loss of billions of fishes, seals, seabirds, killer whales and eagles.

On the other hand, the largest oil spill in United State history was in April 22th 2010. The deep water horizon, a semi-submersible drilling rig sank at Gulf of Mexico, rises the 5,000-foot-long pipe that connects the wellhead to the rig became detached and began leaking oil. As a result, eleven people died in the blast. In addition, U.S. Coast Guard investigators discovered a leak in the wellhead itself. As much as 60,000 barrels of oil per day were leaking into the water, threatening wildlife along the Louisiana Coast.

 

Causes, Effects and Consequences of EVOS against DWHS

Since oil spills are site-dependent occurrences, they elicit particular associated environmental consequences. The impending consequences of any oil spill are dependent of several factors among them; physical conditions, type of oil, currents, wind, wildlife density and restoration approaches. The Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS) elicits fundamental differences in site-dependent factors from the Deepwater Horizon spill (DWHS). Even though much greater volume of oil was spilled in DWHS than in EVOS, these two scenarios exhibit extreme differences in environmental, hence effects. The total volume of oil spilled in EVOS was 41.6 million liters as compared to 779 million liters in and methane gas DWHS as approximated by the National Incident Command’s Flow Rate Technical Group (FRTG), although DWHS volume estimates of oil spillage is still a subject of court trial.

The EVOS constituted the North Slope Heavy Oil (API 29) which was heavier and densely viscous as compared to the DWHS which constituted the Light Louisiana Oil (API 35.2). Even though both oils are biodegradable, the less dense crude oil spillage of DWHS was more readily biodegradable initially as compared to the more dense oil discharged in EVOS. Bioremediation was extensively employed in EVOS while aerial and subsurface dispersants were extensively employed in DWHS to salvage the situation. In addition, EVOS occurred as surface spill relatively closer to the Bligh shore, while the DWHS arose as a gush from an oil well 5,000 feet below the ocean floor in form of deep-sea ‘plume’ and surface water leak about 80 kilometers far from the shore (Atlas, 2011).

Environmental impact

Although it goes without saying that the DWHS disaster released much more oil than was the case in EVOS, EVOS elicited a greater environmental impact on a number of significant resources. For instance, during the EVOS incident more than 10 fold more oiled dead birds (about 35,000) were found than during the DWHS occurrence (6,381) (The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, 2013). This could however be attributed to the mode of bird collection during DWHS as compared to during the EVOS disaster (Belanger et al, 2010). Of equal importance is the fact that the EVOS incident led to considerably increased mortality toll of oiled marine mammals than was evident in DWHS. The EVOS incident saw about 866 sea otter mortality toll out of which 602 were oiled.

Prevention of Future Oil Spill Accidents

Major oil spill accidents normally involve oil tankers and oil infrastructure such as drilling rigs both operated by oil companies. Since there have been virtually no infallible oil spill salvage methods available, oil spill prevention remains the sole approach in the management of oil transportation and mining . The two fundamental overall strategies that would change companies’ conduct as far as oil spill prevention is concerned include either obligatory government regulatory policies or voluntary schemes normally followed up by Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) (Frynas, 2012). Frynas asserts that the growth of CSR is expressed by the outstanding development of company codes of conduct as well as reports of social and environmental statuses. This has seen about 95% of world’s leading companies officially being annually accountable to CSR operations, especially, including oil companies. Oil companies have also had voluntary self- reporting to annually publish environmental indicators available in the worldwide Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guiding principles of 2006 as well as the sector-based Oil and Gas Industry Guidance Reports. Frynas notes that there has been a remarkable proof of oil spill prevention over time from the 1970s well into 2009.

On the other hand, the development of the Alaska Oil Spill Commission that generated a report made 60 formal recommendations to the U.S. government for the prevention of future oil spills. Besides, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) that probed EVOS found that drinking by the ship’s captain, fatigue and overworking of the crew were contributing factors; hence, it made numerous stringent novel guidelines for prevention of future incidences.

Conclusion

It is evident that the response times to the past spills were slow, since the Coast Guard personnel responsible for the cleanup exercise were relatively unprepared and exhibited frustration. Even though natural responses such as evaporation and bacterial action can degrade crude oil during slow release, rapid human interventions stated above are fundamental to successfully salvage large amounts of spilled crude oil. More often than not, salvage teams are presented with several cleanup techniques necessary for removal of oil, however, the effectiveness of each approach lies upon the environmental conditions surrounding location of the spill and the particular technique of the response. It is also important for international governing bodies to set up stringent universal guidelines that will regularly check the conduct of oil mining and transport companies for the prevention of future oil spills.                  

References

Atlas R. M. (2011). Oil Biodegradation and Bioremediation: A Tale of the Two Worst Spills in U.S. History. Environmental Science & technology 45: 6709-6715

Frynas J. G. (2012). “Corporate Social Responsibility or Government regulation? Evidence on Oil Spill Prevention”. Ecology and Society 17(4)