Oil Spill

See It, Change It

SkyTruth Intern Detects Oil Spills in Niger Delta and Rio Del Rey Basins

August 15, 2022/in Cerulean, General, Offshore Drilling, Oil Spill /by Devin Thigpen

Close inspection of satellite imagery reveals sources of oil pollution off Africa’s coast, near vulnerable communities

Nigeria is not only the largest economy in Africa, but also the largest exporter of crude oil on the continent, exporting 1.27 million barrels per day in 2021. The Nigerian economy is—and historically has been—reliant on the hydrocarbon industry for foreign exchange income and tax revenue. The reliance on crude oil in particular for income generation has led to the widespread proliferation of offshore drilling operations in the petroleum-rich Niger Delta Basin.

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Oil pollution in European waters: It’s worse than you think

March 23, 2022/in Alerts, Bilge Dumping, Cerulean, Climate, Conservation Vision, Oceans, Oil Spill /by Jona Raphael

SkyTruth helped investigative journalists report on the extent of the offshore oil pollution problem in Europe.

For the past eight months, SkyTruth has been working with a team of journalists and media outlets associated with Lighthouse Reports investigating the problem of chronic (and often illegal) oil pollution by vessels at sea transiting European waters. These outlets recently released a groundbreaking series of stories. In this blog post we explain how SkyTruth developed the estimates used by these journalists to reveal the extent of oily bilge waste in European waters.

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Trinidad and Tobago’s Offshore Infrastructure Cumulative Spill Report 2020 – 2021

February 1, 2022/in Climate, Conservation Vision, Internship, Oceans, Offshore, Offshore Drilling, Oil & Gas, Oil Spill /by Breanna Xiong

SkyTruth’s project Cerulean helped intern Breanna Xiong document Trinidad and Tobago’s chronic oil pollution problem.

Trinidad and Tobago – the small dual-island Caribbean nation – has been a top exporter of liquefied natural gas for years. Because of its significant oil and gas exploration, and what some Trinidadians would call poor corporate and government responsibility, oil leakages from offshore infrastructure are very common events in Trinidad’s waters. With the help of satellite imagery, SkyTruth has been able to directly observe and continuously monitor Trinidad’s chronic oil pollution.

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Twenty years of SkyTruth success

December 21, 2021/in Bilge Dumping, Biodiversity, BP, Climate, Coal, Conservation Vision, Deepwater Horizon, Fishing, General, Gulf Monitoring Consortium, Gulf of Mexico, Hydraulic Fracturing, Impact stories, Mining, Mountaintop Mining, Oceans, Oil & Gas, Oil Spill, Overfishing and Illegal fishing, Protected Area Monitoring, Public Lands, SkyTruthing, Watchdog, Wildlife Conservation /by Amy Mathews

Satellite technology has changed but SkyTruth remains true to its core principles, with an impressive track record of holding industries and governments accountable.

As 2021 draws to a close, SkyTruth is celebrating its 20th anniversary as an environmental tech nonprofit. It’s hard for us to believe how far SkyTruth — and technology — have come in those 20 years, and how much we have accomplished. In 2022 we’re poised to grow even more; doubling the size of the SkyTruth team and magnifying our ability to use technology to promote conservation for people and the planet. Read on to join us on our journey from very humble beginnings to high-tech innovators.

People & Places

SkyTruth Alerts helps Healthy Gulf track pollution

November 15, 2021/in Alerts, Gulf of Mexico, Impact stories, Oceans, Offshore, Offshore Drilling, Oil & Gas, Oil Spill /by Amy Mathews

With the intense concentration of polluters and frequent hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, the watchdog group Healthy Gulf relies on Alerts to flag dangerous incidents.

Naomi Yoder works as a geospatial analyst for the environmental group Healthy Gulf identifying pollution events, tracking trends and pushing for reform to reduce pollution. “SkyTruth Alerts is so useful. I can’t say it enough.”

Archive for category: Oil Spill

Close inspection of satellite imagery reveals sources of oil pollution off Africa’s coast, near vulnerable communities

SkyTruth helped investigative journalists report on the extent of the offshore oil pollution problem in Europe.

SkyTruth’s project Cerulean helped intern Breanna Xiong document Trinidad and Tobago’s chronic oil pollution problem.

Satellite technology has changed but SkyTruth remains true to its core principles, with an impressive track record of holding industries and governments accountable.

With the intense concentration of polluters and frequent hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, the watchdog group Healthy Gulf relies on Alerts to flag dangerous incidents.