In order to obtain quantitative basic data for marine oil pollution prevention, the statistics of oil spill incidents in Korea and in the world for 20 years from 1993 to 2012 were collected and analyzed with relation to the number of oil spills and the amount of oil spilt. In Korea for 20 years, total number and average annual number of oil spills were 6,608 cases and nearly 330 cases/year, respectively, and total volume and average annual volume of oils spilt were 57,328 kL and nearly 2,866 kL/year, respectively. Due to major oil spills from oil tankers, annual volumes of oils spilt in Korea were sharply increased to 15,388 kL in 1993, 15,773 kL in 1995, 3,428 kL in 1997 and 13,008 kL in 2007. In case of worldwide oil spills for 20 years, total number and average annual number of oil spills of 8 kL (or 7 tonnes) and above were 420 cases and 21 cases/year, respectively, and total amount and average annual amount of oils spilt 8 kL (or 7 tonnes) and above were about 800,000 kL (or 704,000 tonnes) and about 40,000 kL/year (or 35,200 tonnes/year), respectively. Major oil spills from oil tankers increased massively annual amounts of oils spilt worldwide to about 159,000 kL (or 140,000 tonnes) in 1993, about 147,600 kL (or 130,000 tonnes) in 1994, about 90,900 kL (80,000 tonnes) in 1996, about 81,800 kL (72,000 tonnes) in 1997 and about 76,100 kL (or 67,000 tonnes) in 2002. Obvious correlation between annual number of oil spills and annual amount of oil spilt was not found in both Korea and the world, while both annual number and annual volume tended to decrease with the lapse of year in both Korea and the world, though there were wide fluctuations from year to year in both annual number of oil spills and annual amount of oils spilt worldwide and in Korea for 20 years. From 2008 to 2012 worldwide, there were sharp decreases in both annual number and annual amount of oil spills. In particular, no oil spill of 800 kL (or 700 tonnes) and above occurred in the year of 2012.