Home : About Us : Our Story/History

Vikoma History Timeline 

Vikoma was formed by BP following the SS Torrey Canyon oil spill, the UK’s largest ever spill, when 32m gallons of oil spilled off the coast of Cornwall. Since then, our equipment has been used in many major spills, including those shown below. Other key events in our history and the history of oil spills are also shown below:

Vikoma formation

1967

Amoco Cadiz oil spill 223,000 tonnes cost $87m

1978

IXTOC well blow out in Gulf of Mexico 480,000 tonnnes, cost $42m

1979

Exxon Valdiz oil spill 38,500 tonnes cost $3.5 billion.

1989

Gulf War 1.5m tonnes cost $540m est. World's biggest oil spill

1991

First HI Sprint single point fast deployment boom sold.
Vikoma wins Queens award for export achievement.

1992

FasFlo Skimmer Systems and Cascard Skimmer Systems sold in response to OPA 90 Act.

1993

Vikoma ISO 9001 accreditation.

1994

Sea Empress oil spill 130,000 tonnes.

The Vikoma Sea Devil "Tooth Disc" Skimmer successfully used on the Sea Empress Spill as the Prestige oil spill.

1996

Vikoma Mini-Vac small portable vacuum recovery developed in response to the Nahodka spill in the Sea of Japan.

1997

Komara Star "Tooth Disc" Skimmer developed and tested in situ at Venezuela where recovery of oil was recorded at 1,000,000 cst.

1998

Prestige oil spill 77,000 tonnes, Spain's biggest spill.

2002

Vikoma celebrates the sale of the 500th unit of the Komara 20 skimmer to the OSRL

2007

Range of Power Packs developed for extreme environments (-32C to +49C)

2009

Vikoma moved in to a new multimillion pound purpose-built design and manufacturing facility adjacent to the River Medina in East Cowes UK.

Macondo oil disaster 210m gallons of oil spilled
230,000 tonnes, cost $10 billion.

2010

Management Buy Out backed by Private Equity Growth Partner Agathos Management LLP - a new board of directors formed and shareholding management team.

2015

1992 First HI Sprint Boom still in operation 23 years later.

2015

Vikoma ISO 9001:2015 accreditation.

2017

Timeline information

2026

Explore Our Product Range

Oil Spill Solutions
Oil Spill Solutions
Industrial Oily Water Skimming
Industrial Oily Water Skimming
Environment Protection
Environment Protection

News

Read the latest news article providing insight into our industry. You can also access all of our newsletters and sign up to future ones.
 

Read More

Case Studies

Vikoma have equipment case studies that that cover all areas of the spill response and Industrial oily water treatment industries.
 

Read More

History

Vikoma prides itself of having a dedicated team of employees with a combined experience and industry knowledge of over 100 years.
 

Read More

Can We Help You?

 

Contact Us