24JAN2018 - NEWS - Number of oil spills decreases in 2017 - ITOPF

ITOPF maintains a database of oil spills from tank vessels, including combined carriers, FPSOs and barges. For 2017, ITOPF recorded two large spills (>700 tonnes) and four medium spills (7-700 tonnes). The first large spill occurred in June when a tanker sank in the Indian Ocean with over 5000 tonnes of oil on board. The second incident involved a tanker which sank off the coast of Greece in September spilling about 700 tonnes of oil. Of the four medium sized spills two were recorded in January 2017 in South Asia and Southeast Asia; both resulted from collisions and involved the release of bunker fuel. A third spill was reported in East Asia in August. This also involved bunker fuel and resulted from a vessel grounding in bad weather. The fourth medium-sized spill occurred in October in the USA.