The Environment Chronicle

An oil spill of unknown origin was detected on 26 December 2007 along the coast of Chubut Province in Argentinia, approximately 1,740 km south of Buenos Aires. The spill covered an area of 24 square kilometres in the Atlantic Ocean. The oil affected hundreds of birds around region.

During oil offloading from the Statfjord A platform in the North Sea, about 4,000 standard cubic metres of crude oil was spilled into the sea on 12 December 2007. The spill occurred when the tanker Navion Britannia was loading oil from a loading buoy. The Statfjord field is located around 200 kilometres west of Bergen, close to the border of the UK continental shelf.

On Friday 7 December 2007, the oil tanker the Hebei Spirit was anchored in front of the Port of Incheon on the west coast of South Korea, south of Seoul, when it was hit by the barge Samsung 1. This collision led to 3 breaches in the hull of the Hebei Spirit, and a spill of at least 10,000 tonnes of crude oil into the Yellow Sea.

On 23 November 2007 the Liberian registered passenger vessel Explorer sank in a position 25 miles southeast of Penguin Island in the Bransfield Strait near to the South Shetland Islands in about 1300 meters of water.

A storm on Sunday, 11 November 2007, broke a Russian oil tanker, the Volgoneft-139, in half spilling at least 1,300 tonnes of fuel oil in the Kerch strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

The container ship Cosco Busan struck the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge in thick fog on November 7. 58,000 gallons (220,000 litres) of fuel oil spilled into San Francisco Bay.

The collision between the double-hulled oil tanker Torm Gertrud and the bulk carrier New Flame occurred off the coast of Gibraltar on 12 August 2007. The vessel broke up into two on 22 December amid numerous unsuccessful recovery efforts. On 11 February the New Flame sank almost completely only its upper section could be seen above the surface. The wreck of New Flame has caused several oil spills.

Heavy rainstorms caused by an extraordinary weather situation led to major floodings in parts of the UK. During June and July 2007 a large low-pressure area coming from the Atlantic Ocean was trapped over Wales and England.

Some 370 tonnes of oil have seeped from the 180-metre (600-foot) Cypriot-flagged vessel which ran aground and split in two in heavy weather off Norway's west coast on Friday night. An oil slick from the grounded cargo ship has covered some 440 birds in oil.