8. North Sea Oil Spill
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| The Gannet Alpha platform. Image credit: Royal Dutch Shell |
On August 10, 2011, an oil leak was discovered on the Gannet Alpha offshore oil platform operating off the coast of Scotland. The leak spilled 1,300 barrels of oil into the North Sea. The Gannet Alpha is owned by Exxon and Shell. Although much smaller than other international oil spills such as BP's in the Gulf of Mexico or Shell's in the Niger Delta, this spill is the largest the North Sea has seen in the last ten years. Research by The Guardian shows there are an average of 294 spills in the North Sea every year. However, the spill in August 2011 was more than four times larger than all of the oil spills combined in the North Sea in 2009.