Oil Industry

Oil pollution from industry and transportation tends to be focused in a few areas ie. ports and harbours. The high use of a small area means that pollution that would usually be diluted and disposed of naturally if over a larger area is now in excess and becomes a pollutant. On a world-wide scale (see below), the oil industry is not actually the primary source of oil pollution however it is on a more localised scale, in Lagos Bay, Nigeria, or Mumbai, India, for instance.

Sources of oil in the oceans:

• Some ocean oil "pollution" is naturally occurring; seepage from the ocean bottom and erosion of bottom sediments and rocks releases oil.
• Air pollution, mainly from cars and industry, places hundreds of tons of hydrocarbons into the oceans each year as particles settle, and rain washes hydrocarbons from the air into the oceans.
• Only about 5 percent of oil pollution in oceans is due to major tanker accidents, but one big spill can disrupt sea and shore life for miles.
• Offshore oil production can cause ocean oil pollution, from spills and operational discharges.
• A small amount of oil illegal dumping also occurs.
• Every year, bilge cleaning and other ship operations release millions of gallons of oil into navigable waters. This is an accumulation of thousands individual discharges of just a few gallons each
• However the vast majority of oil pollution is from domestic car oil use and from run off from land, and municipal and industrial waste sites. Every year oily road runoff from a city of 5 million could contain as much oil as one large tanker spill. So oil is actually a land based source of pollution.

MARPOL (for MARine POLlution) is shorthand for a United Nations treaty (the Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships) that became effective in 1983. Throughout the 1980s MARPOL is credited with reducing oil pollution around the world by around 60%.

Initiatives in the US have included recycling of old car oil. Government and industry-sponsored oil collection and recycling programs in many communities are increasing awareness of the hazards of dumping used oil and the benefits of reusing it in an effort to curb the high rates of oil pollution from this section of users. To combat accidents close to harbours and ports more caution needs to be taken with shipping lanes. In Tokyo ships with hazardous cargo get accompanied into port to oversee navigation ensure safe passage. Groundings and collisions are the two main causes of oil spills of over 700 tonnes from 1974 to 2000 so this sort of caution should be encouraged in other high risk areas such as ports, harbours and drilling sites.