Amoco Cadiz

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The Amoco Cadiz was a supertanker, owned by Amoco, that split in two after running aground on Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, in March 16, 1978, resulting in the 5th-largest oil spill in history.

En route from the Persian Gulf to Le Havre, France, the ship encountered stormy weather with gale conditions and high seas. A seemingly minor failure in its steering gear started a slow drift to the French coastline.

The entire cargo of 1,619,048 barrels spilled into the sea. A slick 18 miles wide and 80 miles long covered about 200 miles (320 km) of Brittany coastline. Beaches of 76 different Breton communities were oiled.

The isolated location of the grounding and rough seas hampered cleanup efforts for the two weeks following the incident. Severe weather resulted in the complete breakup of the ship before any oil could be pumped out of the wreck.

As mandated in the "Polmar Plan", the French Navy was responsible for all offshore operations while the Civil Safety Service was responsible for shore cleanup activities. Although the total quantity of collected oil and water reached 100,000 tons, less than 20,000 tons of oil were recovered from this liquid after treatment in refining plants.

After long negotiations on financial terms between the ship's captain and the master of a West German tugboat and two unsuccessful towing attempts, the towline finally broke during the argument and the ship drifted on the rocks.

1 Lloyds Open Form
2 Type of Oil
3 Environmental Impact
4 Legal Claims
5 See also
6 External links

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Lloyds Open Form

The argument that arose between the captain of the Amoco Cadiz [Pasquale Bardari] and that of the captain of the German Tug Pacific [Harmut Weinert] was on the issue of LOF (Lloyds Open Form). Captain Weinert thought this a classic LOF case, an oil tanker with damage to its steering gear, rough weather and getting closer to the shore by the minute.

Lloyds Open Form is a standard legal document for a proposed salvage operation, a four page long contract emitted by the famous Lloyds of London. It's called "open" because it is literally open, with no amount of money being stipulated for the salvage job: The sum to be paid is determined later in London by a professional arbitrator. At the top of page one, beneath the title "Salvage Agreement" is a statement of the contract's fundamental premise. "NO CURE - NO PAY!"

The cost of the ship and its cargo are taken into account when the arbitrator decides what the pay should be, in 1978, the ship and the cargo were valued at about $40 million dollars, so Captain Weinert could have made millions on the deal. Captain Bardari of the Cadiz wanted "...towage rate to Lyme Bay."

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Type of Oil

Both Arabian Light and Iranian Light crude oil are medium weight oils with an API gravity of 34.8. Bunker C is a heavy product with an API of between 7 and 14. A 12-mile long slick and heavy pools of oil were smeared onto 45 miles of the French shoreline by northwesterly winds.

Prevailing westerly winds during the following month spread the oil approximately 100 miles east along the coast. One week after the accident, oil had reached Côtes d'Armor.

Oil penetrated the sand on several beaches to a depth of 20 inches. Sub-surface oil separated into two or three layers due to the extensive sand transfer that occurred on the beaches during rough weather. Piers and slips in the small harbors from Porspoder to Brehat Island were covered with oil.

Other affected areas included the pink granite rock beaches of Tregastel and Perros-Guirrec, as well as the tourist beaches at Plougasnou. The total extent of oiling one month after the spill included approximately 200 miles of coastline.

Oil persisted for only a few weeks along the exposed rocky shores that experienced moderate to high wave action. In the areas sheltered from wave action, however, the oil persisted in the form of an asphalt crust for several years.

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Environmental Impact

The nature of the oil and rough seas contributed to the rapid formation of a "chocolate mousse" emulsification of oil and water. This viscous emulsification greatly complicated the cleanup efforts. French authorities decided not to use dispersants in sensitive areas or the coastal fringe where water depth was less than 50 meters. Had dispersant been applied from the air in the vicinity of the spill source, the formation of mousse may have been prevented.

At the time, the Amoco Cadiz incident resulted in the largest loss of marine life ever recorded from an oil spill. Mortalities of most animals occurred over the two month period following the spill. Two weeks following the accident, millions of dead mollusks, sea urchins, and other bottom dwelling organisms washed ashore.

Diving birds constituted the majority of the nearly 20,000 dead birds that were recovered. The oyster mortality from the spill was estimated at 9,000 tons. Fishermen in the area caught fish with skin ulcerations and tumors.

Some of the fish caught in the area reportedly had a strong taste of petroleum. Although echinoderm and small crustacean populations almost completely disappeared, the populations of many species recovered within a year. Cleanup activities on rocky shores, such as pressure-washing, also caused habitat impacts.

The Amoco Cadiz spill was one of the most studied oil spills in history. Many studies remain in progress. This was the largest recorded spill in history and was the first spill in which estuarine tidal rivers were oiled. No follow-up mitigation existed to deal with asphalt formation and problems that resulted after the initial aggressive cleanup.

Additional erosion of beaches occurred in several places where no attempt was made to restore the gravel that was removed to lower the beach face. Many of the affected marshes, mudflats, and sandy beaches, were low-energy areas. Evidence of oiled beach sediments can still be seen in some of these sheltered areas. Layers of sub-surface oil still remain buried in many of the impacted beaches.

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Legal Claims

In 1979, it was estimated to have caused $250 million in damage to fisheries and tourist amenities. The French government presented claims totalling $2 billion to United States courts.

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