Ten oil spills of more than seven tonnes were recorded from tanker incidents in 2024, the same number as in 2023, according to ITOPF statistics.
According to the data, this brings the decade average to 7.4 tanker spills per year, which is a major reduction from the numbers reported in earlier decades but currently slightly higher than the average for the 2010s (6.3 spills per year).
Furthermore, six of the ten incidents in 2024 resulted in spills greater than 700 tonnes (classified as ‘large’ spills). These mostly involved spills of fuel oil and occurred in South America, Asia and Europe. The four other incidents (classified as