The Esso-Bernicia oil spill, Shetland, 1978-79: Experiences and lessons

Conference · Fri Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1991 · AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States)

OSTI ID:7078196

Ritchie, W ^[1]; Kingham, L V ^[2]

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1. Univ. of Aberdeen (United Kingdom)
2. Auris, Ltd., Aberdeen (United Kingdom)

About 200 tons of Bunker C fuel oil escaped from a ruptured tank in a berthing incident in the winter of 1978-79. The worst weather conditions in a decade and failure of equipment led to widespread environmental damage. Local crofters also suffered some loss of sheep through oiling and subsequent drowning (sheep graze backshore beach areas of Shetland). The environmental response to the experiences of this accident produced reinforcement of baseline and operational monitoring of the physical and biological environments. SOTEAG (the Shetland Oil Terminal Environmental Group - a committee set up and funded jointly by industry (the terminal and pipeline operators) and Shetland Island Council and including the Port of Sullom Voe Harbour Authority) also commissioned special surveys to investigate other claims of environmental damage. At a managerial level, links between the Sullom Voe Oil Spills Advisory Committee (SVOSAC) and SOTEAG were reinforced. To prevent any recurrence of the widespread damage caused by 'Bernicia' a multimillion dollar engineering project was completed to build permanent spill booms to intercept oil moving along the coast at strategic points and to boom-off environmentally sensitive areas. Oil spill response equipment and deployment capacity were also increased substantially. Although not related directly to 'Bernicia,' other improvements over the last decade have included an 'area of avoidance' for the prescribed westerly, Atlantic, tanker approach to the terminal (effectively at least 10 mi away from land), aerial and video inspection of all inbound tankers, and the introduction of legislation relating to the amount and quality of ballast water.

• OSTI ID: 7078196
• Report Number(s): CONF-910403--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: AAPG Bulletin (American Association of Petroleum Geologists); (United States) Journal Volume: 75:3
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020900* -- Petroleum-- Environmental Aspects
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540320 -- Environment
Aquatic-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
CLEANING
CONTROL
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
ECOSYSTEMS
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
EQUIPMENT
EUROPE
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
OIL POLLUTION CONTAINMENT
OIL RETENTION BOOMS
OIL SPILLS
PLANNING
POLLUTION
POLLUTION CONTROL
POLLUTION CONTROL EQUIPMENT
POLLUTION REGULATIONS
REGULATIONS
REMOVAL
UNITED KINGDOM
UNITED KINGDOM ORGANIZATIONS
WATER POLLUTION
WATER POLLUTION CONTROL