Top Ten Oil Spills

Here are the ten largest tanker oil spills in history:

• Gulf War oil spill (1991) – Approximately 240 million gallons of oil was spilled into the Persian Gulf during the Gulf War.
• Deepwater Horizon oil spill (2010) – 210 million gallons of oil was spilled into the Gulf of Mexico due to an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.
• Atlantic Empress/Aegean Captain (1979) – 90 million gallons of oil was spilled when two tankers collided off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago.
• ABT Summer (1991) – 51 million gallons of oil was spilled when the ABT Summer tanker caught fire and exploded off the coast of Angola.
• Castillo de Bellver (1983) – 42 million gallons of oil was spilled when the tanker caught fire and sank off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa.
• Amoco Cadiz (1978) – 37 million gallons of oil was spilled when the Amoco Cadiz ran aground off the coast of Brittany, France.
• Odyssey (1988) – 43 million gallons of oil was spilled when the tanker exploded and sank off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada.
• Haven (1991) – 19 million gallons of oil was spilled when the Haven caught fire and sank off the coast of Genoa, Italy.
• Prestige (2002) – 17 million gallons of oil was spilled when the Prestige tanker broke in two and sank off the coast of Spain.
• Torrey Canyon (1967) – 3 million gallons of oil was spilled when the Torrey Canyon ran aground off the coast of Cornwall, UK.