Tanker in 1989 oil spill is sold for scrap

March 21, 2012

The Exxon Valdez has been sold for scrap 23 years after causing the worst tanker spill in U.S. history, which led to new designs for oil carriers.

Now called the Oriental Nicety, the vessel was sold for about $16 million, according to Maryland-based Global Marketing Systems, the world's biggest cash buyer of ships for demolition. The sale was disclosed Saturday.

The ship was converted into an ore carrier in 2007 and had changed owners and names four times since the 1989 accident, American Bureau of Shipping records show.

The spill, which dumped 11 million gallons of oil in Alaska's Prince William Sound, was the largest in U.S. waters until the 2010 accident at BP's Macondo oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. It's still the country's largest leak from a tanker, and it led to the U.S. requirement for ships to have two hulls.

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