Oil spill volume is a limited measure of damage or impact. Smaller spills have already proven to have a great impact on ecosystems, such as the "Exxon Valdez" oil spill because of the remoteness of the site or the difficulty of an emergency environmental response. Since 2004, between 300 and 700 barrels of oil per day have been leaking from the site of an oil-production platform 12 miles off the Louisiana coast which sank in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan. The oil spill, which officials estimate could continue throughout the 21st century, will eventually overtake the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizion disaster as
2011 Bohai Bay oil spill July 5, 2011. It was only revealed because of a public microblog tip-off that appeared on June 21. The news of the oil spill was withheld by the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) for a month. In a statement by the SOA, the US company ConocoPhillips managing the platform was held responsible for the leak, and was fined 200,000 yuan (US$31,000). CNOOC however, said they informed government authorities from the start. Outside of the spill area, dead seaweed and rotting fish can be seen around Nanhuangcheng island (南隍城島) in Shandong province. "The oil, containing toxic substances and heavy metals, will greatly