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
History of the oil tanker the English Channel. "Seawise Giant" was renamed "Happy Giant" in 1989, "Jahre Viking" in 1991. From 1979 to 2004 she was owned by Loki Stream, at which point she was bought by First Olsen Tankers, renamed "Knock Nevis" and converted into a permanently moored storage tanker. The Batillus class supertankers are the biggest ships ever constructed by gross tonnage. Although the tanker fleet increased around 12 percent annually around 1970, a shortage on tonnage remained. In 1973 this resulted in an enormous increase in new building orders, especially from oil majors that wanted to gain on the quicker deciding independents,