1969 Santa Barbara oil spill the platform since Unocal sold its Santa Barbara Channel operations in 1996. 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill The Santa Barbara oil spill occurred in January and February 1969 in the Santa Barbara Channel, near the city of Santa Barbara in Southern California. It was the largest oil spill in United States waters by that time, and now ranks third after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon and 1989 Exxon Valdez spills. It remains the largest oil spill to have occurred in the waters off California. The source of the spill was a blow-out on January 28, 1969, from the coast on Union
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