In heavy weather, the condition under which tanker accidents often happen, it is too dangerous to fly close enough to the water to spread the dispersant.

The tanker accident, he said, made the cleanup plan a "very high-profile political problem" for the agencies and made officials reluctant to move quickly.

The amount of oil involved in the three tanker accidents over the weekend was just under 1 million gallons.

Obviously we had noted the two tanker accidents.

Exxon had sought more than $1 billion from its insurance companies and underwriting syndicates for the tanker accident and oil spill.

The Nordic has been prepared to operate in a flammable or harmful atmosphere, e.g. after a tanker accident.

Increasing winds and swells made the job of containing the oil, spilled in a tanker accident last Wednesday, more difficult.

The barge into which oil had to be pumped was out of commission at the time of the tanker accident, and was available only several days later.

More than 60 tanker accidents and 400 illegal oil spills at sea are recorded every year.

The Coast Guard estimates that sewage treatment plants discharge twice as much oil into coastal waters as tanker accidents do.