Oil dispersants Alaska had fewer than 4,000 gallons of dispersants available at the time of the "Exxon Valdez" oil spill, and no aircraft with which to dispense them. The dispersants introduced were relatively ineffective due to insufficient wave action to mix the oil and water, and their use was shortly abandoned. A report by David Kirby for TakePart found that the main component of the Corexit 9527 formulation used during Exxon Valdez cleanup, 2-butoxyethanol, was identified as "one of the agents that caused liver, kidney, lung, nervous system, and blood disorders among cleanup crews in Alaska following the 1989 "Exxon Valdez" spill."
Jakob Maersk oil spill Jakob Maersk oil spill The Jakob Maersk was an oil tanker registered in Denmark that struck a sand bank on January 29, 1975 while entering the port of Leixões, Portugal, causing a major oil spill. Built in 1966, the tanker was owned by Maerskline Navigation Company, a subsidiary of A.P. Moller, and contracted by Shell Oil Company consisting of a crew of seventeen at the time of the accident. Seven of those seventeen crew members died during the explosion. "Jakob Maersk" was carrying 88,000 tons of crude oil from Kharg Island in Iran while entering the Port of Leixões in