Oil spills occur throughout the working life of an oil rig, in the testing phase, during drilling and
when oil is transported to refineries on land. Oil spills
affect all marine life from plankton to whales. While catastrophic spills like the Exxon Valdez and the Prestige (off the coast of Spain in 2002) caused enormous damage and made headlines around the world, small and moderate spills dump equally lethal tonnes of oil into the world’s oceans each year.
A major accident occurred at the Terra Nova rig in Newfoundland within the first two years of production. In December 2004, 1,069 barrels spilled into the Atlantic Ocean covering an estimated 57 square kilometres. Between 1997 and 2003, there were a total of 163 oil spills off the coast of Newfoundland.
Nova Scotia has suffered two large spills in the waters near Sable Island. One spill released 4,000 litres of diesel and the other one released 354,000 litres of drilling mud at an exploratory well.
For information about the impacts of oil on the marine environment check out Living Oceans' oil spill model.
