Trends and Observations on 50 Years of Oil Spill Statistics

This paper reviews over 50 years of historical data on oil spill incidents to examine longer-term trends and provide perspectives on progress in spill prevention. Based on available data, the evidence that spill rates, frequencies, and volumes have decreased over 50 years is examined. Overall, the frequency of oil spills for all oil industry sectors has decreased over the last five decades. Oil spill volumes were also decreasing until the 2010 Macondo MC252 Deepwater Horizon well blowout in the US Gulf of Mexico. This single event resulted in an extreme spill volume that strongly influenced the total spill volume for that decade. With the exception of the Deepwater Horizon event, reductions in spillage per amount of oil produced and transported indicate that spillage rates have decreased. Reductions in spill frequency (numbers of spills) and spill volumes despite increased production and transport occurred across all oil industry sectors by varying amounts.