Oil spill fingerprint of low sulfur fuel oil in South Korea

A low sulfur fuel oil (LSFO) spill accident occurred in South Korea on December 17, 2019, before the introduction of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) sulfur limit. In this study, chromatograms, percentage weathering plots (PW-plots), and diagnostic ratios (DRs) of LSFOs collected in different areas during in the early spillage were compared for oil spill fingerprint. The source oil was conformed as LSFO according to physical properties and spill oils, like the source oil, show high n-alkanes and low benzo[b]naphto[1,2-d]thiophene (BNT) distribution. In the PW-plots, spill oils exhibited a decreasing trend with the reduction of low-molecular-weight compounds, which were affected by evaporation. The relative difference in the DRs was below 14%, indicating that the source and spill oils matched, excluding the ratios consisting of evaporated compounds. These results showed that spill oils confirmed as LSFO were evaporated during the initial spillage stage, and matched to the source oil.