An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into the ocean or coastal waters, but spills may also occur on land. Oil spills may be due to releases of crude oil from tankers, offshore platforms, drilling rigs and wells, as well as spills of refined petroleum products and their by-products, heavier fuels used by large ships such as bunker fuel, or the spill of any oily refuse or waste oil.
Oil slick from the Montara oil spill in the Timor Sea, September 2009
Ballsh, Mallakaster, Albania 2019 17 - Crude Oil
A surf scoter covered in oil as a result of the 2007 San Francisco Bay oil spill
A bird covered in oil from the Black Sea oil spill
Petroleum or crude oil, also referred to as simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name petroleum covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude oil and petroleum products that consist of refined crude oil.
A sample of petroleum
Pumpjack pumping an oil well near Lubbock, Texas, U.S.
An oil refinery in Ahmadi Governorate in Kuwait
A fractional distillation apparatus