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Oil, Gas & Mining vocabulary · Environmental Impact & Closure

Oil spill

Meaning in oil, gas & mining, with examples

nounCore term

In oil, gas & mining, oil spill means: An accidental release of crude oil or oil products into the sea, rivers or onto land, for example from a tanker, pipeline or well.

In Turkish: petrol sızıntısı, petrol döküntüsü, petrol kirliliği

How it is used

Companies prepare oil spill response plans and keep equipment such as booms and skimmers. News reports give the size of a spill in barrels or tonnes and describe the clean-up. Small leaks on site are often just called spills and must be reported.

Example sentences

  1. Booms were placed around the tanker to contain the oil spill.

  2. The company tests its oil spill response plan in a drill twice a year.

Common collocations

  • oil spill response
  • contain an oil spill
  • clean up an oil spill
  • major oil spill
  • blowoutAn uncontrolled release of oil, gas or water from a well after the pressure control systems fail. It can cause fires, deaths and serious pollution.
  • pipelineA long line of connected pipes, often buried or laid on the seabed, used to carry oil, gas, water or slurry over long distances.
  • environmental impact assessment (EIA)A formal study of how a planned project such as a mine, pipeline or refinery will affect air, water, land, wildlife and local communities, and how those effects will be reduced.
  • decommissioningSafely shutting down and removing an oil and gas facility, platform, pipeline or plant at the end of its life, including plugging the wells and cleaning up the site.

More terms: Environmental Impact & Closure

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