Rapport erika total
1391 mots
6 pages
TOTAL: Erika’s crisis and its consequencesThe Erika tanker chartered by Total run aground off the north-west coast of France on 12 December 1999 and spilled more than 10 million liters of oil into the sea. Erika sailed out of Dunkerque (France) bound for Livorno (Italy) with 20,000 tons of fuel oil. Officially, Erika was carrying heavy fuel oil n°2, containing carcinogenic products. Facing a heavy storm in the Bay of Biscay, Erika broke in two and sank, releasing thousands of tons of oil into the sea.
The oil spill affected a 400-kilometre stretch of the French Atlantic coast between the Finistère and Charente-Maritime regions. Erika’s shipwreck is considered as one of the biggest oil tanker disasters in the world, killing marine environment and polluting shores: about 250,000 tons of wastes were thrown into the sea and between 150,000 and 300,000 birds died (source: Greenpeace).
The first rapport on Erika’s shipwreck, Touret and Guibert’s one, was delivered on January 2000:
- The skipper was highly experienced and the Erika’s crew did not make mistakes. - The sea conditions did not constitute a real danger for such a big tanker. Erika should have been able to resist the storm. - The tanker sank because of a rusty tank breaking inside the boat. - RINA, the Classification Society, had ordered some renovations in November 1999, but they had never been made. - Since 1996, Erika has been controlled 7 times but without structure controls. However, Mackenzie institute ranked Erika 1 out of 5 in 1999, which means that the company considered that the boat was in a pitiful condition.
After the Erika’s shipwreck, Total’s corporate image suffered as a result of inadequate crisis management. First, the company kept silent, and then decided to communicate. Total’s leaders used very technical words to explain the disaster, refused to take any responsibility for Erika’s shipwreck and did not sympathize with victims.
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