LAST year, the total amount of oil lost to the environment from tankers was 7,000 tonnes, compared with an all-time low of about 1,000 tonnes in 2012, according to the London- based International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF). The vast majority of the 2013 total can be attributed to three large spills, and about 1,000 tonnes spilt was relatively heavy fuel oil which was lost in one of those incidents.

ITOPF says these figures represent a slight increase in the number of large spills from tankers last year compared to the previous two years, but at the same time it notes that "the downward trend has been maintained". The total quantity spilt so far this decade is only a sixth of that spilt in the same period in the previous decade.

Three oil spills of 700 tonnes or more occurred last year, with one incident accounting for the vast majority of the total. In October, the tanker Yong Win 3 capsized and sank, spilling an estimated 5,000 tonnes of diesel oil. Two other incidents resulted in a spill of about 1,000 tonnes of fuel oil and 800 tonnes of bitumen, respectively.