You rarely changed the oil in the main engine. Over time the oil would become contaminated and you would discard and replace 250 gallons a few times per year. Changing the oil would only happen as a result of a major casualty like an internal engine fire and crankcase explosion. These are extremely rare. The full engine oil change was 10,000 gallons. That's $200,000 sitting in a tank until you need it. Some companies know that's a cost of business. In others, somebody in an office sees that as $200,000 that could be saved.
There are rules about sailing a ship in an "unseaworthy" condition. But there's always room for nuance. Let's say the minimum oil level in the engine is 9000 gallons. That would mean you would be seaworthy and could sail if your storage tank was 1000 gallons short of being full. And it works until your luck runs out.
Shipping companies always look at what they can cut. Cutting here and there relatively small amounts adds up because everything is expensive. There's nothing inherently wrong with being economical. But the ships' senior officers have to stand up to those who may not fully understand the effect of their decision beyond saving some money.
And there are companies that are not sufficiently well-capitalized enough. Large container ships burn over $100,000 per day in fuel. To managers, pretty much the only way to make up for that is to dis-allow crew members to have a second pork chop for dinner. Even though you don't get anywhere near that. But it's how organizations work.
I found the key to long term success is to keep up on the maintenance, focusing on safety, reliability and zero pollution.
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