Exxon Valdez
The Exxon Valdez, three days after it ran aground on a reef
- Oriental N
- Oriental Nicety
- Dong Fang Ocean
- Mediterranean
- SeaRiver Mediterranean
- Exxon Mediterranean
IMO no. 8414520
The Exxon Valdez was an oil tanker. The sailing under the flag of the United States ship ran aground on March 24, 1989, Alaska due, triggering an oil spill and one of the greatest environmental disasters of seafaring from. After repairs she was put under the name Exxon Mediterranean back into operation and was still in service until 2012, most recently as an ore carrier under the name Oriental Nicety.
History
The Exxon Valdez was 1985/1986 under the hull number 438 on the National Steel & Shipbuilding Corp.. built for the U.S. oil company ExxonMobil and handed over in December 1986.
Specifications
The ship was more than 300 meters long, reaching 20 meters draft, 30,000 tons empty mass, displaced fully loaded a water mass of 240,000 tons and could carry 235,000 cubic meters of crude oil. The machinery of the vessel brought it to a top speed of 16.25 knots (30,1 km / h).
Accident cause and effect
The ship was known in 1989 under his first name Exxon Valdez. It was on March 24 of that year, on the way from the oil - loading station of the Trans-Alaska pipeline in the port city of Valdez in southern direction. Despite a capacity of 210,000 tons, the ship at the time of the accident was only loaded with 163,000 tons of crude oil. Shortly after midnight, it was on to the Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound off South Alaska.
The captain, alcoholic, Joseph Hazelwood, was drunk at the time and was in his chamber. The responsibility on the bridge had by high workload and lack of rest before his guard probably overtired Third Officer Gregory Cousins . He failed, after a deviation from the normal itinerary the Exxon Valdez - as previously agreed with the captain - on a safe course due.
The impact of the disaster on the environment and economy of the region have been significantly exacerbated by the fact that the U.S. authorities at that time were not prepared organizationally and technically helpful as a great misfortune.
If the ship had a double hull, the disaster would have been likely to avoid or had not occurred to the extent. As a result of the accident, the United States in 1989 issued a directive requiring all new buildings must have tanker with a double hull for the entry into U.S. ports are allowed. Global objective is, as of 2015 to have only double- tanker on the high seas.
The responsible for this part of the coast Coast Guard was accused of neglect. In a radar surveillance of the tanker you could have warned the ship in good time before the close of the reef. However, the Coast Guard defended this accusation on the grounds that the radar equipment at the time did not work and that had previously been a shift change just at the base.
In the accident ran out 37,000 tons of crude oil and damaged the delicate ecosystem. More than 2000 kilometers of coastline were polluted. Hundreds of thousands of fish, sea birds and other animals died as a direct result of the disaster. Long term, the animals living there insidious poison on food intake, since the oil residues are still not degraded.
After the Disaster
Captain Joseph Hazelwood was no criminal behavior are detected and he was sentenced to a fine of $ 50,000 for illegal discharge of oil. In the criminal case against Exxon, there was a debt trading, which led to a conviction Exxon to 150 million dollars in fines, of which 125 million were issued due to Exxon's efforts to eliminate injury and the paid damages, and $ 100 million restitution payments ( Criminal restitution ). Compared to the civil claims of the State of Alaska and the federal government in 1991 Exxon accepted the obligation to pay $ 900 million over ten years with an option to 2006 an additional 100 million dollars in the case of undiscovered damage. The sum will be used to restore the natural resources and managed by a board of trustees. The procedure relating to a claim in the amount of $ 92 million to eliminate the unexpected today remaining oil residue under the option is not yet complete. Until the official declaration of the completion of the cleaning work in 1992 Exxon invested in an additional 2.2 billion dollars. In the case brought by private aggrieved civil procedure, performed at the request of the defendant oil company as a class action, Exxon was convicted in 1994 of first instance to $ 287 million compensation payments to more than 32,000 injured, in addition to punitive damages in the amount of $ 5 billion. Against the latter trod Exxon Other courts: courts of appeal laid the punitive damages at first to $ 2.5 billion fixed, finally in June 2009 legally to $ 507.5 million plus $ 480 million interest rates since 1994 was preceded in June 2008, the capping of punitive damages. by the Supreme Court of the United States to the sum of the total paid compensation for damage actually suffered by private $ 507.5 million. Already in August 2008, ExxonMobil had announced to pay out 75 percent of the cap amount to the plaintiff.
The region and its residents have not recovered until 2010 of the damage.
Whereabouts of the vessel
The ship was put into operation after a ten-month and 30 million U.S. dollars expensive repair under the name Exxon Mediterranean again. In July 1993, it was renamed to SeaRiver Mediterranean. Since 1990, U.S. law was enacted, which ships that have lost more than 4,000 tons of oil, which prohibits driving in the accident area of Alaska, drove it instead in the Middle East, Asia and Australia.
From mid-March 2005, the ship flying the flag of the Marshall Islands continued as Mediterranean. As of summer 2007, it was in Guangzhou, China, converted to an ore carrier and brought in December 2008 under the Panamanian flag as Dong Fang Ocean back on track. After a collision on 29 November 2010 with the ship Aali it was from 10 December 2010 to the port of Dalian. The renamed to the name of Oriental Nicety in April 2011 ship arrived on 9 September 2011 finally back on track.
Scrapping 2012
In March 2012 the ship for about 16 million U.S. dollars to the Global Marketing Systems, a trading company for Abwrackschiffe was sold. It should be scrapped in India. However, an Indian environmental organization sued the scrapping in the country because the ship with asbestos and heavy metals is loaded and its shipment to India so that a violation of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal was. The Supreme Court of the country rejected the complaint on 30 July 2012, after which the ship was 2 August 2012 set on the beach front of Alang under the name Oriental N for scrapping due.
Valdez Principles
In light of the disaster, the American non -profit organization CERES developed the following ten principles, which were first called Valdez Principles and later as CERES principles. Some large public companies have undertaken to comply with these principles.
Mention in the Art
Film and computer animation
Painting
The painter Georg Sternbacher created in direct response the series " unlucky " material images of oil and pitch, symbolize the suffering of the animal world
Music
- Exxon Valdez is the title of a song by Achim Reichel critical on the CD Oha! . Achim Reichel was asked by Greenpeace to celebrate an anniversary in 1996, to write a song about a major natural disaster. He opted for the wreck of the Exxon Valdez. The song can be found on the last two anniversary CDs by Achim Reichel. Also an Exxon oil tanker is mentioned in the music video of "Blue Sky Mine" of Australian band Midnight Oil. Precisely the band played in 1990 at the protest concert "Black Rain Falls " before the Exxon Building in New York. It also appeared in a camera setting in a music video for their song on the Scorpions "Wind of Change". In the video, many excerpts from news programs are used (especially from crisis areas ), as well as an aerial view of the damaged ship. The name of the Exxon Valdez is clearly visible on the bow.
- The song " Valdez 27 Million? " By the band 24-7 Spyz is from the misfortune and the neglect of the environment.
- There is the formation of Dance 2 Trance in collaboration with bassist Stephan Weidner ( Böhse Onkelz ) an instrumental piece called "Remember Exxon Valdez ", which was released in 1992 on the album " Moon Spirits".
- In Ecuador there is a ska punk band called " El Retorno de Exxon Valdez " ( The Return of the Exxon Valdez ).
- By Frank Zappa is available on the CD The Yellow Shark entitled Outrage at Valdez. The music is - used partly in the Cousteau documentation mentioned in the next section - in a different version. In this other version there is, among other things, a reference to What shall we do with the drunken sailor.
- On the album " All we could do what sing" the band Port O'Brien from California / Alaska is the last song " Valdez " by the oil spill.
- The rapper Prinz Pi mentions the Exxon Valdez in the song Moon Song.
- The American hip- hop duo Reflection Eternal Exxon Valdez mentioned in the song " Ballad Of The Black Gold" with the lines " Exxon is at 40 billion a year ... ".
- The Swedish band September Malevolence published on their album from 2008 After This Darkness, There's a song with the title Exxon Valdez.
- The Berlin band " Exxon Valdez " aka The great powerful Thing celebrated for several years mainly progressive / stoner / experimental music.
Documentary
- The Black Death, Film by Paul Seed
- The Alaska syndrome, backgrounds an oil spill, Film Axel Engstfeld
- Black Wave: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez ( 2008), documentary directed by Robert Cornellier and Paul Carvalho
Later documentation
- Seynsche, Monika: The long shadow of an oil spill - the Exxon Valdez accident of 1989, burdened man and the environment still in dradio background from March 22, 2013