Seoul Declares Oil Disaster

December 12, 2007By Andy RowellBlog Post

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 … Read More

US Sues Oil Spill Ship

December 3, 2007By Andy RowellBlog Post

The US federal government has filed suit against the owners and pilot of the container ship that ran into San Francisco’s Bay Bridge on November 7th. The suit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, seeks compensation for cleanup costs and the harm to natural resources caused by the 58,000-gallon spill of heavy bunker fuel … Read More

Environmental Disaster as Russian Tanker Sinks

November 12, 2007By Andy RowellBlog Post

As the political wranglings continue about the oil spill in San Francisco bay, a greater ecological catastrophe is unfolding between Russia and Ukraine. A tanker carrying 4,000 tonnes of oil broke up yesterday in heavy seas off the Crimean peninsula, splitting in half. One senior official has called it an “environmental disaster”.

Exxon Can Contest Valdez Fine

October 30, 2007By Andy RowellBlog Post 1 Comment

And so it continues. Much to the dismay of thousands of Alaskans, Exxon Mobil has won the right to appeal against a $2.5bn damages bill relating to the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The US Supreme Court said it would hear the appeal against record damages due to victims of the Valdez oil spill. The case … Read More

Total Pleads for Acquittal Over Erika Spill

June 7, 2007By Andy RowellBlog Post

Lawyers for Total have asked a French court to acquit the oil giant over a December 1999 oil spill that killed some 75,000 birds off the western coast of France and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. The lawyers said French and international law shielded the company from any liability and insisted Total … Read More

Federal Court Rejects Latest Exxon Appeal

May 24, 2007By Andy RowellBlog Post

At the time of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster I remember that someone said “lawyers not yet born will work on this one”. Some seventeen years later the litigation continues. Exxon’s legal options look more constrained though after a federal appeal court rejected the company’s latest request for the court to further reduce damages against … Read More

Eighteen Years Ago…

March 24, 2007By Steve KretzmannBlog Post

On March 24, 1989 eleven million gallons of North Slope crude oil began pouring out of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker into the pristine waters of Alaska’s Prince William Sound. Hundreds of thousands of fish, seabirds, bald eagles, otters, seals and whales were maimed and killed. The native communities whose lives depended on those waters … Read More

Plans to Beat Oil Bottleneck

March 21, 2007By Andy RowellBlog Post

Gulf governments are planning to build oil pipelines that will bypass the world’s most vulnerable energy choke point, the Strait of Hormuz, aiming to avoid possible Iranian threats to global oil shipments. Around two-fifths of the world’s traded oil is shipped by tanker through the Hormuz Strait. But the 54km wide passage is highly vulnerable … Read More

Oil Giant “Knew Tanker Was a Risk”

February 13, 2007By Andy RowellBlog Post

The French oil company Total and 14 other defendants were accused yesterday of criminal responsibility for one of Europe’s most calamitous oil spills, the wreck of the Erika. Total is accused of agreeing to use the ship even though it failed to satisfy its own safety rules. The four-month trial – the most complex of … Read More