SUBMITTED TO: DONE BY:

Prof . K . C . SHARMA A . G . JAYA ARAVINTH

 The Amoco Cadiz oil spill incident
 When and Where it happened.
 How it happened.
 The effects of the spill.
 Measures taken to cleanup the Amoco Cadiz
spill.
 Methods taken to solve oil spill around the
world.
 Amoco Cadiz oil spill incident is the largest oil
spill of its kind in history.
 It contained about 1,604,500 barrels or
219,797 tons or 25,50,94,641 liters of crude
oil. And additionally it had 4000 tons of
bunker oil and all were spilled into the sea.
 This incident affected a lot of marine life,
birds and humans along the coast.
 Amoco Cadiz is an huge oil tanker which was launched on
13/05/1974, it is owned by Amoco Corporation(American
oil company),founded in 1899.
 It weighed around 109,700 tons and had a capacity of
233,700 tons.
 This incident occurred on 16 march 1978.
 It was on a route from Persian gulf to Rotterdam ,
Netherlands. but it was struck by a storm and due
to heavy winds it was pushed to the coast of
Brittany, France. And It was hit by a rock,5km from
the coast of Brittany. Spilling its cargo.
 The ship was on a route from Persian gulf to Rotterdam,
Netherlands on 16 march 1978. During which the ship
encountered a huge storm with high waves and strong
winds.
 At 09:45 am a strong wave broke the ship’s rudder and it
was no longer responding to the helm. It was then found
that there was a loss of hydraulic fluid, so attempts were
made to repair it but it was unsuccessful.
 Therefore the ship messaged that the ship was “no longer
manoeuvrable” and asked for help. At this point the ship
was just drifting on the sea
 Later at 11:20 the call for tugboat assistance was issued.
 Then finally at 11:28 the German tugboat “Pacific”
responded offering help.
 It then reached on scene at 12:20 am but due to the
stormy sea a tow line was established only at 2:00 pm but
it broke off at 4:15 pm and later several attempts were
made to establish a tow line but it was unsuccessful so the
ship dropped an anchor to stop its drifting.
 And later at 8:55 pm a successful tow line was made, but it
was unable to stop the ship’s drifting towards the coast
due to its huge mass and strong winds.
 Unfortunately at 9:05 pm the ship hit a rock 5km from the
coastline, first flooding its engines and then at 9:40 pm
the hull was broken, spilling the oil out.
 Causing the greatest oil spill of its kind.
 Due to spilling of 219,797 tons of crude oil and 4000
tons of bunker oil,19 km long slick and heavy pools
of oil spread onto 72 km of French shoreline and
after a month the oil spread to a approx of 160 km
along the shoreline.
 The oil affected more than 76 different beaches thus
affecting the tourism.
 Several beaches had oil penetrated to a depth of 20
inches or 50 cm.
 Oil on rocky shores were difficult to remove so
special teams were set up to clean them.
 This incident resulted in the largest loss of
marine life ever recorded from an oil spill.
 After two weeks of the accident millions of dead
molluscs, sea urchins and other bottom dwelling
organisms washed ashore.
 More 20,000 dead birds were recovered.
 More than 9,000 tons of oyster were found.
 The living of fishermen was hugely affected. The
fish caught by them had skin ulcerations and
tumors and fish caught in those area had a
strong petroleum taste.
 The French Navy was responsible for the off
shore cleanups and the civil safety service was
responsible for the shore cleanups.
 A total quantity of 100,000 tons of oil and water
mixture were collected but only 20,000 tons of
oil was obtained after treatment from on shore
and Navy collected most of the oil from the sea.
 The French government appealed to the US
court and received a $200 million dollars from
Amoco Corporation.
1. In-situ burning: In this the oil is lit on fire thus
helping to remove a huge portion of the spill
2. Using Skimmers: These are machines used to suck
in oil.
3. Sorbents: These are materials used to absorb or
adsorb oil.
4. Using Dispersants: These are chemicals that help in
disintegration of oil. ex: corexit 9500.
5. Hot water and High pressure washing: water is
heated to 170 c and is sprayed at a high pressure.
6. Bioremediation: This is the use of specific
microorganisms to remove toxic and harmful
substances.