.jpg) TheExxon Valdez atPrince William Sound in 1989, hours after running aground | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | Exxon Valdez |
| Owner |
|
| Port of registry |
|
| Ordered | 1 August 1984 |
| Builder | |
| Laid down | 24 July 1985 |
| Launched | 14 October 1986 |
| Completed | 1986 |
| Maiden voyage | 1986 |
| In service | 11 December 1986 – 20 March 2012 |
| Out of service | 21 March 2012 (sold for scrap) |
| Renamed |
|
| Refit | 30 June 1989 |
| Identification |
|
| Fate | Scrapped atAlang,India in 2012. |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | VLCC oil tanker |
| Type | ABS: A1, ore carrier, AMS, ACCU, GRAB 25 |
| Tonnage | 214,861 DWT[1] |
| Displacement | 240,291 long tons[1] |
| Length | 987 ft (301 m) overall[1] |
| Beam | 166 ft (51 m)[1] |
| Draft | 64.5 ft (19.7 m)[1] |
| Depth | 88 ft (27 m)[1] |
| Installed power | 31,650 bhp (23,600 kW) at 79 rpm |
| Propulsion | Eight-cylinder, reversible, slow-speed Sulzer marine diesel engine |
| Speed | 16.25 knots (30.1 km/h; 18.7 mph) |
| Capacity | 1.48 millionbarrels (235,000 m3) of crude oil[1] |
| Crew | 21 |
| Notes | [2] |
Exxon Valdez was anoil tanker that gained notoriety after running aground inPrince William Sound, spilling her cargo ofcrude oil into the sea. On 24 March 1989, while owned by the formerExxon Shipping Company, captained byJoseph Hazelwood and First Mate James Kunkel,[3] and bound forLong Beach, California, the vessel ran aground on theBligh Reef, resulting in thesecond largest oil spill in United States history.[4] The size of the spill is estimated to have been 40,900 to 120,000 m3 (10.8 to 31.7 million US gal; 257,000 to 755,000 bbl).[5][6] In 1989, theExxon Valdez oil spill was listed as the54th-largest spill in history.[7]
The tanker was over 301 meters long, 51 meters wide, and 26 meters deep (987 ft x 166 ft x 88 ft), with a deadweight of 214,861 long tons and a full-load displacement of 240,291 long tons. The ship was able to transport up to 235,000 m3 (1.48 million bbl) at a sustained speed of 30 kilometres per hour (16 kn; 19 mph), powered by a23.60 MW (31,650 shp)diesel engine. Her hull design was of thesingle-hull type, constructed byNational Steel and Shipbuilding Company inSan Diego, California. She was a relatively new tanker at the time of the spill, having been delivered to Exxon on 16 December 1986.
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At the time of the spill,Exxon Valdez was employed to transport crude oil from theAlyeska consortium's pipeline terminal inValdez, Alaska, to the lower 48 states of the United States. At the time it ran aground, the vessel was carrying about 201,000 m3 (1.26 million bbl; 53 million US gal) of oil. After the spill, the vessel was towed toSan Diego arriving on 10 June 1989, and repairs were started on 30 June 1989. Approximately 1,600 tons of steel were removed and replaced that July, totaling US$30 million of repairs to the tanker. Its single-hull design remained unaltered.
TheExxon Valdez spill occurred under PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush, whoseEnvironmental Protection Agency Administrator,William K. Reilly, reportedly played a significant role in mobilizing presidential support for action to contain and clean up the spill.[8][better source needed]
Litigation was filed on behalf of 38,000 litigants. In 1994, a jury awarded plaintiffs US$287 million in compensatory damages and US$5 billion in punitive damages. Exxon appealed and the Ninth Circuit Court reduced the punitive damages to US$2.5 billion. Exxon then appealed the punitive damages to the Supreme Court which capped the damages to US$507.5 million in June, 2008. On 27 August 2008, Exxon Mobil agreed to pay 75% of the US$507.5 million damages ruling to settle the 1989Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska.[9]In June 2009, a federal ruling ordered Exxon to pay an additional US$480 million in interest on their delayed punitive damage awards.[10]
After repairs,Exxon Valdez was renamedExxon Mediterranean, thenSeaRiver Mediterranean in the early 1990s, when Exxon transferred its shipping business to a new subsidiary company, River Maritime Inc. The name was later shortened toS/R Mediterranean, then to simplyMediterranean in 2005. Although Exxon tried briefly to return the ship to its North American fleet, it was prohibited by law from returning to Prince William Sound even though her sister ship with the same design,Exxon Long Beach, never left that route.[11] It then served in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.[12] In 2002, the ship was again removed from service.[13]
In 2005, it began operating under the Marshall Islandsflag of convenience.[14] Since then, European Union regulations have also prevented vessels with single-hull designs such as the Valdez from entering European ports.[15] In early 2008, SeaRiver Maritime, an ExxonMobil subsidiary, soldMediterranean to the Hong Kong–based shipping company, Hong Kong Bloom Shipping Ltd., which renamed the ship, once again, toDong Fang Ocean (Chinese:东方海;lit. 'Oriental Sea'), under Panama registry. In 2008, she was refitted and converted from an oil tanker to an ore carrier. Hong Kong Bloom Shipping is a subsidiary of Chinese government-owned companyChina Ocean Shipping (Group) Corporation (COSCO).[16][better source needed]
On 29 November 2010,Dong Fang Ocean collided in the South China Sea with the Malta-flagged cargo ship,Aali. Both vessels were severely damaged in the incident, andAali was towed toWeihai andDong Fang Ocean was towed to Longyan Port inShandong.[17]
In March 2012,Dong Fang Ocean was purchased by Global Marketing Systems, Inc. for scrap at an estimated US$16 million and sailed under her own power to aship breaker in Singapore. She changed hands again among scrap merchants (a common occurrence) and was eventually routed toAlang, India, under the ownership of Priya Blue Industries and at some point renamedOriental Nicety.[18] Before being beached, some[who?] tried to halt the action, arguing that the vessel was in breach of theBasel Convention.[19] On 30 July 2012, theSupreme Court of India granted permission for the owners ofOriental Nicety to beach her on the Gujarat coast to be dismantled.[20] She was then beached at Alang on 2 August 2012.[21]
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1989 | |
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| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents |
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| International | |
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| National | |
