A report by US watch-dog, the Government Accountability Office has concluded that the Coast Guard lacks the resources to adequately protect tankers carrying liquefied petroleum or crude oil from a possible terrorist attack.
The report concluded that the Coast Guard is stretched too thin in some cases “to meet its own self-imposed security standards such as […]

Happy Christmas Alaska. Exxon’s present to those desperate for compensation from the Exxon Valdez oil spill is its new defence in the U.S. Supreme Court that the $2.5 billion verdict the company was ordered to pay conflicts with more than 200 years of maritime law.
Exxon is now arguing that trial and appellate courts erred in […]

This is getting silly. There has been yet another oil spill. Rescuers are trying to contain an oil slick from a small tanker that capsized at a port in central Indonesia yesterday, after it was loaded up with more than 4,000 barrels of fuel.
It is not immediately clear how much oil had leaked from the […]

Are the Iraqis gearing up for a major oil export drive? They have just launched their first new ship in 27 years and delivery of two more tankers is expected within three months.
The Dijlah — the name for the Tigris River in Arabic — was inaugurated in the southern port city of Basra on […]

South Korea has declared a section of its west coast a special disaster zone, as thousands of residents, soldiers and police spent a fifth day trying to mop up the worst oil spill in the country’s history.
President Roh Moo-hyun said yesterday the government would offer “maximum support” to the residents of the area “focused on […]