Ningbo Port Tanker Oil Spill Risk Assessment Applied Research

With a total handling capacity of 250 million tons in year 2005, constituting a 19.77 % year-on-year increase, Ningbo Port, the second largest of Chinese mainland, continues to be the second largest one of China's coastal port. Priding in its first position of China's main ports for seven consecutive years, Ningbo Port handled 4.7202 million TEU in year 2005, constituting a 28.62% year-on-year increase. Meanwhile, the volume of oil handled at Ningbo Port surged in recent years, reaching 46 million tons in year 2002, accounting for 30% of the port's total handling capacity.Besides, Ningbo Port boasts 50 wharfs that are authorized to handle dangerous goods, including 2 oil wharfs, each with a handling capacity of 250 thousand tons. In year 2005, Ningbo Port received 25066 cargo vessels carrying dangerous goods, among which, 150 are huge oil tankers with a 200 thousand tons carrying capacity for each. The carrying capacity of the largest oil tanker Ningbo Port received reached 450 thousand tons.With the prosperity of the port economy, however, we should be aware that the risk of marine environment pollution from ships is increasing. Although Ningbo MSA tries to reduce the accident rate from 3 per ten thousand ships during 1991 -1996 to 0.8 during 1997-2002 by actively preventing and strictly controlling oil spills in large scales, there still have been 6 to 7 oil spill accidents from ships in small scales per year with the rapid development of oil transportation in Ningbo Port. Ningbo Port owns a rich resource of marine organisms, aquatic products and tourism. Once oil spill from ships in large scales occurs, the ecological environment of Ningbo Port will be seriously damaged, thus affecting the development of its economy directly. Statistics shows that the total economical loss reached more than ten million yuan in year 2004 due to oil spills from ships.From above, taking tankers as research objects, with the method of risk assessing, this paper analyzes the oil spill risk in Ningbo Port, the hazards of oil spill and the areas which are sensitive to oil pollution. It also discusses the possibility of oil spilling in large scales and by the method of AHP-fuzzy synthetic...