In face of the probability of occurrences of oil spill in marine waters and the lack of information concerning the behavior of the metals in such events, it is necessary to intensify the studies of metal complexes in order to understand the competition between oil ligands and sea water ligands. For such, it is necessary to determine the stability of the complexes formed in oil and compare them with the correspondent ones in sea water. In the present work the binary systems of the complexes of hexanoic acid (a ligand that represents the carboxylic acids of the oil) and 1-propanethiol (which represents the mercaptans) with the metal ions of interest to the petroleum industry - Ni(II), V(IV) and Fe (II) - were studied because they are present in greater quantities. Despite being present in smaller quantities, Cd(II) and Pb(II) were also studied because they are toxic and controlled by environmental organizations. Hexanoic acid has an oxygen atom of the carboxylate group as donor atom, and 1-propanethiol has a sulfur atom of the thiol group. The complexation study was performed in solution using potentiometric titration and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry. The dissociation constants of the ligands and the formation constants of the complex species ML, ML2, ML3, MLOH, ML(OH)2, ML(OH)3, ML2OH, ML2 (OH)2 and ML3(OH) were calculated. The values of the stability constants can be divided in two groups: one with the binary complexes of hexanoic acid and the other with the binary complexes of 1-propanethiol. Among the complexes formed with hexanoic acid, the ML species with metal ion Pb(II) was the most stable. In the system of the complexes with 1-propanethiol, the ML species with Cd(II) was the most stable. In the species distribution as a function of pH including the representative ligands of oil and sea water, it could be observed that at pH =7 the most stable species for the metal ions V(IV), Ni(II) and Fe (II) were those with hexanoic acid. In relation to ion Pb(II) the complex formed was with 1- propanethiol. Cd(II), this pH occurred the formation of a small proportion of the complex with 1-propanethiol and a higher percentual (60 percent) of the complexes with the chloride and sulfate íons of sea water. Since the concentration of Cd(II) is in the range of ppb, this metal ion is less relevant when pollution is concerned. Thus, if the monodentate oil ligands studied in this work preferably bind metal ions rather than sea water ligands, than this certainly happens with the polydentate oil ligands such as porphyrins. Using the ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry technique it was possible to observe the charge transfer bands and the d-d bands. A simulation of oil dispersion was also performed and the concentration of the metals was measured at various times. Both theoretical and simulation data showed that the metal ions are retained in the oil, even when the oil is spread in sea water.