Oil spills from tankers have fallen to less than one-thirtieth of the levels seen in the 1970s

We’ve all seen the dramatic images of vast parts of the ocean caked in oil; birds and other wildlife stuck in the thick, dark liquid. These spills are both environmentally damaging and expensive to clean up.

As the chart shows, in the 1970s, over 300,000 tonnes of oil were spilled from oil tankers in most years. By the 1980s and 1990s, this had dropped, but the annual average was still over 100,000 tonnes.

These losses have fallen dramatically since the millennium. Last year, 10,000 tonnes were spilled, less than one-thirtieth of the amount lost in a typical year in the 1970s.

This decline has occurred despite global oil production and trade increasing dramatically.

We’ve just updated our charts on oil spills; explore the latest data →

Where this page came from

This page was imported from Our World in Data. “Oil spills from tankers have fallen to less than one-thirtieth of the levels seen in the 1970s” by Hannah Ritchie, Veronika Samborska, published by Our World in Data under CC BY 4.0. Changed here: set as a page, its interactive charts shown as pictures. Data from third parties keeps its own licence.

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