Oil Spill Risks From Tank Vessel Lightering (1998) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 9-27
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Few vessel accidents or spills that are directly attributable to lightering operations have ever occurred in U.S. waters.
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After the vessels are moored together, hoses are passed from the service vessel to the STBL and connected to the cargo oil piping.
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Two vessels are moored together during the transfer of cargo from the STBL to the service vessel. 11 After the transfer is complete, the two vessels are unmoored, and the service vessel departs to deliver the oil.
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coasts. This study evaluates statistics on oil spills and existing spill-prevention measures, examines current activities and future trends in offshore lightering, assesses the regulatory framework and standards and operations for lightering, and recommends measures to reduce the risk of oil spills and minimize environmental damage.
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From page 13... ...
The service vessel may be an all-purpose tanker, a tanker equipped specifically for lightering, an integrated tug-barge unit equipped specifically for lightering, or a standard allpurpose tug-barge unit. Lightering operations in the open ocean may span a geographical area of many miles and may take several hours to a week or more, depending on the number of discharges and the volume of cargo discharged.
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From page 14... ...
Inshore lightering usually takes place at a dedicated, deepwater anchorage in a sheltered location, such as Delaware Bay, San Francisco Bay, or Long Island Sound. The STBL is always at anchor, with the service vessel (usually a tugbarge unit)
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However, economics and the demands of the refineries supplied through the LOOP pipeline connections have limited use of the port to far below its original design capacity. The amount of imported crude oil currently passing through the LOOP is approximately 900,000 barrels per day, which is close to the maximum level achieved to date and represents a marked increase since the early 1990s (personal communication from Thomas P
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A1though these spills did not occur during lightering and were not in any way attributable to lightering, they caused environmental groups to question other tanker transportation practices, including lightering, especially practices about which public information was not generally available. Thus, lightering is cause for concern among certain environmentalists, and Senator John Chafee of Rhode Island sponsored legislation, which was ultimately passed by the U.S.
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An immense amount of information is available on maritime accidents, but identifying patterns and comparing data sets is problematic. The USCG's casualty database, recently renamed the Marine Investigation Module (MIN-MOD)
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. The USCG Marine Safety Office at Galveston reported only one small spill attributable to lightering during the early San Francisco Bay Prince William Sound Port of BULB Pacific Ocean Coast NY Harbor Upper Bay North Atlantic Navigable Waters Mobile River Mississippi Sound to .~ c' Lower Mississippi River Limestone Bay Intercoastal Waterway Gulf of Mexico Coastal Gulf of Mexico 12-200 Gulf of Mexico Gulf of Mexico Contiguous Galveston Bay Delaware Bay Arthur Kill FIGURE 1-3 Location of lightering incidents.
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In general, the lightering safety record in the Gulf of Mexico appears to be excellent. Although the USCG data on lightering-related spills have some limitations, and some people claim that small spills offshore are less likely to be detected or reported than spills in port, the committee found no evidence of unreported lightering-related spills.6 Private analyses of maritime accidents (e.g., Etkin, 1997)
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For the present study, accident statistics for a five-year period were collected from a variety of sources, including state agencies, shipping companies, and the Industry Taskforce on Offshore Lightering (ITOL)
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INTRODUCTION 21 ...~.- ~...~ These vessels are preparing to begin a lightering operation in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Injuries 3 notlife threatening Near misses 5 2 fender failures 2 engine malfunctions 1 generator fire Other 1 1 STBL struck by workboat aThese are the only incidents directly attributable to lightering activities. Some additional small spills may have occurred during lightering as a result of vessel leaks or other causes that were not directly related to the lightering operation.
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were reported in the Gulf of Mexico. Two of these incidents were attributed to fender depressions, two to aborted moorings resulting from engine malfunctions, one to a generator fire, and one to the collision of an STBL and a workboat not involved in the lightering operations.
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From page 25... ...
More recent USCG reports indicate that several spills occurred during, but were not directly attributed to, lightering operations in Delaware Bay. In September 1997, the tanker Mystras was engaged in a lightering operation when it spilled an estimated 20,000 gallons of oil into Delaware Bay (8,000 gallons were recovered)
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Coast Guard for Long Island Sound and Delaware Bay on the East Coast and San Francisco Bay on the West Coast. Almost all of the East Coast inshore lightering took place in Delaware Bay.
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From page 27... ...
1993. The Evaluation of Past and Future Crude Oil Lightering Operations in the U.S.
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