A disaster is brewing? UN: An oil tanker may disintegrate
The dangers of oil spills
The rapid development of human society is inseparable from resources, especially energy, because without energy, all kinds of equipment cannot operate. Humans officially entered the oil age in 1867. In that year, the proportion of human consumption of oil accounted for 40.4% of the primary energy consumption structure of that year, exceeding 38.8% of coal.
Due to the uneven distribution of these resources in the world, some areas are relatively scarce, and some areas are quite rich. In order to develop, the resource-scarce regions have to purchase the required resources from the resource-rich regions, such as purchasing natural gas, oil, coal, etc. Pipelines, railways or oil tankers are used to transport these resources. Generally, there is no situation when transporting these resources, but once a problem occurs, the consequences may be serious. For example, a leak in a pipeline while transporting natural gas or a sinking of a cruise ship carrying crude oil or other problems can bring disaster to the surrounding environment. No, the United Nations has warned that a huge oil tanker is about to disintegrate, with damage expected to exceed $20 billion. How is this going?
UN: An oil tanker may disintegrate
On May 9, 2022, the United Nations warned that an abandoned oil tanker "FSO Safer" in the waters of Yemen could be disintegrated. The abandoned ship was built in 1976 and is now 45 years old. It has a total length of 362 meters, a width of 70 meters, a total tonnage of nearly 190,000 tons, a deadweight tonnage of 400,000 tons, and a full-load displacement of nearly 600,000 tons. It can be called a super tanker and is heavier than an aircraft carrier. Much more, almost as much as six Nimitz-class aircraft carriers.
The supertanker has been docked at the Yemeni port of Hodeida since 2015 and has not received any maintenance during that time. If it is an empty ship, the problem is not very big, even if it sinks or disintegrates, the impact will not be catastrophic. The problem is that although the ship has been abandoned, it still has 1.1 million barrels of crude oil on it, which is more than 150,000 tons of crude oil. Once this huge tanker disintegrates and sinks, not only the 1.1 million barrels of crude oil will be lost, but the local ecosystem will also suffer a devastating blow. According to statistics, including the loss of oil and the cost of environmental pollution control, the loss will exceed 20 billion US dollars.
Crude Oil Spill
This is not the first time that a crude oil spill has occurred in human beings. There have been many similar oil spills in history. After these oil spills, they will generally cause great damage to the local ecosystem. Let's take a look at some of the oil spills that have happened before.
On October 2, 2021, a large-scale crude oil spill also occurred off the coast of California, the United States. Compared with the huge ship that was about to disintegrate in Yemen, there was not as much crude oil leaking off the coast of California, United States six months ago, about 3,000 barrels of crude oil spilled from the "Elly" offshore drilling platform about 5 kilometers off the coast of California. After the oil spill, the relevant departments did not announce the incident immediately, so thousands of tourists still appeared on the nearby beaches even though the beaches were polluted by crude oil.
An Orange County resident said he was unaware of a crude oil leak from a nearby oil well, so he was still surfing at sea, only to find that his whole body was covered in oil after he had surfed ashore. Some people also said they smelled an unpleasant odor as the crude oil spread to the coast. California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement that the oil spill has brought a crisis to the local environment. profound negative impact.
In December 2014, Israel's Eilat oil pipeline ruptured, spilling 600,000 gallons of crude oil, the worst environmental disaster in Israel's history. The cause of this accident was caused by human operation, which occurred when construction workers were rebuilding oil pipelines. The oil leaked from the pipeline and flowed into rivers, creeks and eventually flooded parts of the Evrona nature reserve. It will take several years to completely decontaminate and repair the oil spill area, causing huge losses to the local environment.
The dangers of oil spills
Crude oil is actually unprocessed oil. It is a mixture of various liquid hydrocarbons such as alkanes, naphthenes, aromatic hydrocarbons and alkenes. Its main components are not only carbon and hydrogen, but also sulfur, nitrogen , arsenic, potassium, sodium, calcium and other elements.
When crude oil leaks into the ocean, it will bring a crisis to the nearby marine ecosystem. Because those toxic compounds in crude oil are ingested by some marine organisms and then flow to higher species through the food chain. It can be said that when crude oil leaks into the sea, whether it is low-level algae, high-level fish or other marine mammals, no one is spared. Although we humans do not live in the ocean, we will also prey on marine creatures for food, and these toxic substances will eventually flow into our human bodies.
In addition to entering the body of the organism through the food chain, a large amount of crude oil will float on the nearby sea surface, and the feathers of flying animals such as seabirds will be stuck to these oil stains and cannot fly, and can only sink in the end. Underwater drowning. In March 1978, the tanker Amogo Cadiz sank on the sea, and all the 230,000 tons of crude oil on board was leaked into the sea, resulting in a total of 20,000 seabirds, 9,000 tons of independence and countless habitats on the seabed. animals died. Therefore, the leakage of crude oil can be said to be an environmental crisis.
Although the abandoned oil tanker "FSO Safer" has not yet officially disintegrated, there is such a risk, and the ship carries a lot of crude oil, so many people are worried that if it really disintegrates or sinks, the nearby waters will suffer to a disaster. This disaster is brewing, and hopefully a solution can be found before it happens.
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