The 1989 Valdez Oil Spill

March 19, 2009

Shortly after midnight on March 24, 1989, in a tragic accident deeply regretted by the company, the Exxon Valdez supertanker ran aground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. Despite the efforts undertaken to stabilize the vessel and prevent further spillage of oil, more than 250,000 barrels of oil were lost in just a short period of time. Exxon and the U.S. Coast Guard began a massive cleanup effort that eventually involved more than 11,000 Alaskan residents and thousands of Exxon and contractor personnel. In 1992 the U.S. Coast Guard declared the clean up complete.

The 1989 Valdez accident was one of the lowest points in ExxonMobil's 125-year history. However, we took immediate responsibility for the spill and have spent over $3.8 billion as a result of the accident, including compensatory payments, cleanup payments, settlements and fines. In the aftermath of the accident, we also undertook significant operational reforms and implemented an exceptionally thorough operational management system to prevent future incidents.

This system has been deployed globally and in the years since the accident, we have had nothing similar occur, despite the risks inherent in marine transportation. We believe our subsequent record of safety stems primarily from disciplined and systematic improvements that we have made. We are particularly proud of the spill prevention performance of our global marine transportation affiliates since the Valdez spill. In fact in 2008, there were no spills from ExxonMobil marine affiliate owned/operated tank ships or from those on long-term lease, sustaining an impressive performance trend. We consider this strong performance encouraging and it serves as a solid platform for continuous improvement efforts.

Condition of Prince William Sound
The ecosystem in Prince William Sound today is healthy, robust and thriving. While there were severe short term impacts on many species due to the spilled oil, and they suffered damages, based on the studies of many scientists who have worked extensively in Prince William Sound, there has been no long term damage caused by the spilled oil. This level of recovery conforms to the well established record of recovery documented by the scientific community following many other oil spills around the world, many of them much larger than the one that took place in 1989.