Worst Oil Spills News

A U.S. judge on Wednesday refused to overturn a California county's decision to block Exxon Mobil Corp from using tanker trucks to ship crude oil from coastal facilities to inland refineries while a ruptured pipeline is fixed.U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles denied Exxon's bid to reverse the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors' denial of a trucking permit in early 2022, saying the board's decision was substantially supported by evidence that transporting crude…

U.S. Senators Jon S. Corzine (D) and Frank R. Lautenberg (D) of New Jersey, in the aftermath of what might turn out to be one of the worst oil spills ever on the Delaware River, called on President Bush to pay the federal government’s overdue tab to the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) which is charged with managing the Delaware River for four states and the federal government. The federal government is nearly $6 million delinquent in dues owed to the commission as part of its obligation under an agreement reached between the government and the states which border the river. In a letter sent to Bush today, the Senators said that the DRBC’s ability to respond to recent oil spill has been hampered by a lack of sufficient resources.

The United Arab Emirates, battling one of the worst oil spills to affect its coastline in years, reportedly has stepped up measures against tankers smuggling Iraqi oil in defiance of a U.N. embargo. The UAE decision comes after a sanctions-busting Iraqi tanker, the Zainab, sank off the coast of Dubai, causing an oil slick that has spread to the country's northern shores. The tanker, which was carrying 1,300 tons of fuel oil, was one of two ships seized in UAE waters last week after they were intercepted by a multinational sanctions-enforcing force. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs said that a special committee that the sanction-busting ships would be confiscated and their owners prosecuted.

The United Arab Emirates will soon implement a ban on vessels carrying the flags of certain countries from entering its territorial waters. The decision follows one of the worst oil spills to affect the country's coastline in years after a sanctions-busting Iraqi tanker sank in April. The Georgian-registered Zainab was carrying 1,300 tons of fuel oil. Citing a blacklist from the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the UAE cabinet decided to ban vessels registered in Albania, Belize, Bolivia, Cambodia, Comoros, Georgia, Honduras, the Maldives, Mauritius and Saint Vincent. Communications Ministry undersecretary Abdullah Lootah told…

A leading maritime Flag of Convenience (FOC) has welcomed the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) decision to clamp down on the industry and has called for more regular sanctions against widespread corruption and underperformance. Clay Maitland, managing partner of International Registries Inc (IRI), which manages the Marshall Islands FOC and managed the Liberian FOC until last year, said some FOC's habitually ignored their responsibilities for safety and were riddled with corruption. "Is there some way (FOC) registries can be called to book?" asked Maitland. "There should be sanctions against them. Ship operators pay many millions of dollars each year to fly FOC flags such as those of Liberia and Panama over their ships…