Title: Oil Pollution - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics
Headings: Oil Pollution
Oil Pollution
OIL POLLUTION
Oil Spillage
Ocean Interfaces & Human Impacts
Introduction
Natural Resource Damage Assessment
31.3 Objectives
Assessment of Potential Oil Spill Risk Along Vishakhaptnam Coast, India: Integrated Approach for Coastal Management
Abstract
Oil Industry and the Health of Communities in the Niger Delta of Nigeria
An Environment under Pressure
Pervasive Oil Pollution in the Niger Delta
Ocean Pollution
4.1 Oil Pollution
Salt Marsh Restoration
5.6.3 Oil
Oceans
Abstract
Pollution prevention
2.6 Oil pollution act

Content: Because the spread of spilled oil is much more restricted on land than on water, terrestrial spills usually affect relatively localized areas (unless the spilled oil reaches a watercourse). The characteristics and ecological effects of terrestrial spills are described in more detail later in this chapter, in the context of oil spills in the Arctic. Much information is available about the magnitude, behavior, and effects of oil spilled at sea. Recent estimates of the input of petroleum hydrocarbons to the world's oceans during the 1970s and early 1980s ranged from about 3.2 to 6.1 million tonnes/year (Table 6.3 ). This was equivalent to about 0.2–0.3% of the total quantity of petroleum transported by tankers in 1980 and 0.1–0.2% of global petroleum production ( Cormack, 1983 ). More recent estimates of global inputs of oil to the marine environment suggest that there was a substantial reduction during the 1980s, from 1.47 million tonnes in 1981 to 0.57 million tonnes in 1989 [ International Marine Organization (IMO), 1990; GESAMP, 1993 ). Table 6.3. Estimates of inputs of petroleum hydrocarbons to the world's oceansa a
Source
1973 b
1979 a
1981 d
1983 e
Natural seeps
600
600
300 (30–2600)
200 (20–2000)
Atmospheric deposition
600
600
300 (50–500)
300 (50–500)
Urban runoff and discharges
2500
2100
1430 (700–2800)
1080 (500–2500)
Coastal refineries
200
60
—
100 (60–600)
Other coastal effluents
—
150
50 (30–80)
50 (50–200)
Accidents from tankers at sea
300
300
390 (350–430)
400 (300–400)
Operational discharges from tankers
1080
600
710 (440–1450)
700 (400–1500)
Losses from nontanker shipping
750
200
340 (160–640)
320 (200–600)
Offshore production losses
80
60
50 (40–70)
50 (40–60)
Total discharges
6110
4670
3570
3200
c Kornberg (1981). a
Data are in units of 103 tonnes/year.