Exxon Valdez oil spill Exxon Valdez oil spill The "Exxon Valdez" oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, March 24, 1989, when "Exxon Valdez", an oil tanker owned by Exxon Shipping Company, bound for Long Beach, California, struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef, 1.5 miles west of Tatitlek, Alaska at 12:04 am local time and spilled (or a mass of 35,000 metric tonnes) of crude oil over the next few days. It is considered to be one of the most devastating human-caused environmental disasters. The "Valdez" spill is the second largest in US waters, after the 2010 "Deepwater Horizon" oil spill, in terms
Odyssey (tanker) "Exxon Valdez". Odyssey, built in 1971, was a 65,000-ton tanker operated by Polembros Shipping Ltd. of London, England, and registered in Liberia. On November 5, 1988, the tanker departed Sullom Voe Terminal in the Shetland Islands off Scotland, fully loaded with North Sea Brent Crude oil which was being transported to the Come By Chance Refinery at Come-by-Chance, Newfoundland and Labrador. When the ship was about 1000 nautical miles off the coast of Newfoundland, a major North Atlantic storm arose, buffetting the ship with waves and 44-mile-per-hour winds. In response, the ship sent out a distress signal and kept heading