Bill Allen (businessman) Barbados as well. VECO also was a worldwide player in the oil industry, having divisions in many major oil markets, including the Sudan, Russia, Mexico, Venezuela and Syria. VECO had a major impact on the economy of Alaska and employed over 5,000 people worldwide. On March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef, spilling eleven million gallons of crude oil into the waters of Prince William Sound. The Exxon Valdez oil spill was the second largest in United States history, after the BP Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon spill. Under Allen's guidance, VECO (along with
SS Tuxpam (Mexican oil tanker) SS Tuxpam (Mexican oil tanker) The SS "Tuxpam" was an oil tanker, in the service of Petroleos Mexicanos, that was sunk on 27 June 1942 by U-129. She was completed in November 1903 as SS "Prometheus" for Deutsch-Amerikanische Petroleum GmbH, Hamburg. In 1914 she was laid up at New York City and, in December of that year, sold and renamed SS "Cushing" for Standard Oil of New Jersey, Bayonne. In September 1918, she was requisitioned by the US Navy as "USS Chinampa (SP-1952)" for the Naval Overseas Transportation Service and returned to her owners in May 1919. In 1924 she