All the evidence indicates that over 99.98 per cent of all oil carried by sea reaches its destination without incident and that tanker casualty rates compare more than favourably with those recorded for other modes of transport. In spite of these positive statistics, there is increasing world-wide intolerance of incidents involving all types of tankers because of their impact in terms of loss of life and environmental pollution. The result of this has been an intensification of regulation on a national, regional, and international level, the obvious example being the US response to Exxon Valdez which spawned OPA 90, and the acceleration in IMO regulation. This investigation uses both a time series and cross sectional approach to analyse accidents from 1965 to 2000 in order to identify trends in terms of quality and characteristics of the tonnage and their product as indicated by the number of casualties and the extent of pollution spillage. The preliminary findings suggest that small and ageing vessels are the worst offenders and that pollution is on the increase. There are, however, some striking anomalies in the 1970s which warrant further investigation. Such analysis serves to highlight the important issues of safety and the environment for the tanker industry.
Abstract