1.

Good afternoon.
My name is Dave Rouse. I am the Regional Response Manager for the Asia-Pacific Region at Oil
Spill Response Limited.
Before I start, I would like to thank the leadership of the Petroleum Association of Japan for
their hospitality and the invitation to speak at this workshop.
I was last here two years ago, speaking about the future challenges facing oil spill responsemanagement and operations.
Two of the main themes in that speech were “change” and “collaboration”.
“Change”. The geopolitical changes taking place at a global and regional level, changes in theway we manage our operations, the emergence of new technologies, the ever-increasing
expectations from stakeholders – and how these all combine to present new challenges forspill preparedness and response.
And “Collaboration”. When we think about change in a spill preparedness and responsecontext, we are all in it together. For example, we know that major spills often catalysechanges that affect the whole industry and whole regions. Working in isolation to understand,manage and react to the impacts of changes just doesn’t make sense. We have all seen thebenefits that occur when we work together in true collaboration and combine our different
perspectives to come up with novel and efficient ways of optimising our resources.
Those two themes feature throughout my presentation this afternoon.
I think the first PAJ Oil Spill Symposium was held in 1995 and since then, this series ofinternational conferences has been an outstanding example of innovation and sustained
collaboration in action, having brought together a great number experts over the years with adiverse range of perspectives to exchange information and views, in turn strengthening ourcollective preparedness for oil spills.
Which brings me to today and the subject of this workshop - developments in the oil spill
response structure in south eastern Asia.
For the next half an hour, I’m going to talk to you specifically about oil spill capability in Asia –the current risks and the future challenges for shipowners and charterers.

2.

Before I get into the presentation, I wanted to share my thought process about why I chose totalk about his particular aspect, and the perspective I’m coming from.
As I was thinking about the workshop subject – developments in response structures – I
started thinking about what those structures are, how are they made up and what is it thatcauses them to evolve, develop and change.
As oil spill planners, we know the answer is risk. In simple terms, an evaluation of thelikelihood and potential consequence of spill scenarios helps us decide what response
structures need to be in put in place in order to mitigate the impact of a spill.
So I started thinking about oil spill risk in south eastern Asia, What is the current risk picture?
How is it changing? What factors are causing that change?
This led me onto thinking about the challenges this changing risk picture will pose and theimplications it may have on our response structures in the future.
Pulling those threads together, gave me the subject oil spill capability in Asia – the current
risks and the future challenges for shipowners and charterers.

3.

I’ve been studying and working in the field of crisis management for 18 years and for the last
12 years I have specialised in oil spill preparedness and response. My personal experience ispredominantly in the upstream oil and gas segment of our industry but my presentation
incorporates the collective, global experience of OSRL’s experts.
As you may know OSRL is the largest international industry-funded oil spill preparedness andresponse cooperative. The organisation was initially founded to provide response services tothe shipping industry and over the past 30 plus years we have responded to more than 450
spills globally in all environments.

4.

Today, we have more than 175 Members, including Governments, National Oil and Gas
companies, International oil and gas companies, ports and shipping terminals, shipping
companies and commodity traders.
As a membership organisation, we maintain long term, trusted relationships with regulatorsand industry associations across the world and have developed partnerships and alliances withmany regional and international organisations to ensure the energy industry’s capability torespond to oil spills is robust.
This exposure to so many parts of the global industry allows us to make connections between
things we are seeing in different places, and to share lessons and good practices between andacross regions, countries and companies – which I hope to incorporate into my presentation
today.

5.

I want to start by talking about risk.
We assess oil spill risk in the same way we assess any other type of risk, which I’m sure you are
all familiar with.
Risk assessment is a versatile tool which can be applied at a very micro level all the way
through to a very macro level.
Before we start, we need to define the scope of what we are looking at and why. From an oil
spill perspective - are we looking at a single vessel or a particular geographical location? Are
we looking at an entire shipping route? Are we looking at risk to a province or country? Or are
we looking internationally across a whole region? Setting a clear scope ensures that we cancompare the relative risk of different events.
The first step in any risk assessment is to identify the hazards. What are the events that havethe potential to cause harm.
Second we need to make an assessment of the likelihood that those events will take place.
Here we may use engineering analysis of failure rates, statistics or trends to help us. From an
oil spill perspective, we are also thinking in terms of geography – where do spills mostfrequently occur? and in terms of operations – at what stages of operations do spills mostfrequently occur, how much is typically spilt and what are the causes?
Third we need to analyse and understand the potential consequences which may result if thehazard does occur. From an oil spill perspective, understanding where the oil might go andwhat might be impacted are two of the key issues to understand.
Combing this information allows us to evaluate and characterise the risk of each hazard
occurring. We often display this information on a risk matrix.
We can use this information for a number of purposes, but one of the most important is tohelp prioritise efforts in risk reduction – taking steps to prevent the hazardous event fromoccurring, which has the effect of reducing the likelihood; and taking steps to minimise theimpact if the hazardous event does occur – reducing the consequence.
The information from an oil spill risk assessment is also of importance to inform thedevelopment of response capability – what agreements and arrangements need to be inplace, how much resource should be available and where should it be positioned.
That’s the outline theory, now I’m going to try and build up a picture of oil spill risk in thisregion.

6.

The scope for this risk picture is going to be very high level and very macro. We are looking at
the oil spill risk to vessel owners and charterers in South East Asia. Whilst we are concerned
primarily with the risk to vessel owners and charterers, we also need to consider the wider
shipping industry and how their activities contribute to the picture.

7.

As we are looking at this from a very macro level, we can say simply that the hazards which
could result in oil spills are the vessels, their cargo and their fuel.

8.

Once we visualise the hazards - the vessels - on a map of the region, we can start to look at
the likelihood and consequence of oil spills.
I’m sure you are very familiar with this image – it shows the main shipping routes and thedensity of traffic through Maritime South East Asia.
Let’s start by considering likelihood. From the macro perspective we are taking, I’ll talk about a
few of the factors which have a bearing on the likelihood of a spill occurring.
The most obvious is the volume of vessel traffic in this region and the proximity of the vessels
to each other.
Geographical features also influence likelihood. For example the Straits of Malacca. At its
narrowest point the straits are just 1.5 nautical miles wide and the depth can be as shallow as
10m. It’s geographical location makes it a concentration point for vessel traffic in this region –over 100,000 vessels pass through each year – which contributes to increasing the likelihoodof a vessel having an incident in this location.
Security is another factor – there are a number of areas in the region which have a higher riskof piracy, though it has fallen in recent years. If we continue using the Straits of Malacca as an
example - many of you who recall the 2000s will know there was marked increase in piracy inthis location in that period. Cooperation by regional navies has largely stemmed this issue,
illustrating how the factors that influence likelihood of a spill do not remain static. But piracy
threats remain a factor elsewhere in the region.
Other dynamic factors include such things as seasonal haze from regional forest fires which
can affect visibility, tropical storms, extreme weather events and natural disasters. Whilst
statistically speaking, adverse weather is not considered the highest direct cause of large oilspills, it continues to account for a significant proportion of shipping accidents overall.
Perhaps the most significant but hardest to predict are human factors. These are cited ascontributing to more than of 75% of marine casualties. When we talk about human factors in
relation to accidents, we are talking about failures in: situational awareness – knowing what is really happening speaking up when necessary
 communication – really understanding everyone
 complacency – is everything really ok?
 Culture – is the safety culture as strong as you think it is?
 Fit for duty – is everyone healthy, uninjured and unimpaired by alcohol and drugs
 Local practices – efficiency or dangerous shortcuts?
 Fatigue – just tired? Or dangerously fatigued?
 Distractions – multi-tasking, or dangerously distracted?
 Pressure – just busy, or dangerously overloaded?
 Capability – is the team really capable and competent?
 Teamwork – how well does the team REALLY work together?
These human factors are a significant contributor to the overall risk of incidents occurring
across all industries – not just shipping.

9.

Now we have established a picture of risk, we can look at ways to reduce it.
We can do this in two ways – the first is to take steps to reduce the likelihood of the hazard
from occurring through prevention measures.
I’m not going to spend long on this – it is fairly widely known the measures that the shipping
industry has put in place to reduce the likelihood of incidents.
As a snapshot of the effectiveness of the preventative measures, I wanted to share this graph,
courtesy of ITOPF, which shows that despite a growth in the amount of crude and othertanker trade over time – shown by the purple line, we have seen a decline in the number oftanker spills – shown by the bars.
As we heard earlier, a small number of large spills still account for the majority of oil spilt.
Recent data shows collisions are the current most common causes of spill incidents.
The industry’s continued effort to prevent spills occurring is clearly effective in reducing the
likelihood from a risk perspective, but there are two things that we as planners andresponders all know –1) shipping will never be a risk free industry, and even the most effective measures to reduce
the likelihood or incidents will never reduce it to zero – spills will still occur.
2) we are all in it together - complacency is the enemy – human nature means we all think an
incident could never happen to us! And even if it doesn’t, the impact of someone else having amajor spill can have wide-reaching, industry changing effects.

10.

The second aspect of risk reduction is preparedness. Effective preparedness for spills helps toreduce the consequences of the incident by enabling effective response.
What do I mean by effective response?
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Rapid notification of a spill incident to the appropriate authorities
An incident management structure with clear communication lines and decisionauthorities so that decision makers can gain situational awareness, understand where
uncertainties exist and have a framework to determine an effective response strategy thatwill reduce the impact of a spill on the environment
The mobilisation of expertise and resources to execute the response strategy
An effective logistics infrastructure to underpin the operations, including managing waste
effectively; andTransparent communications with impacted communities and other stakeholders

Spill response is complex and high pressure. An effective response requires a collective effort,
so to complete our picture of oil spill risk in south east Asia, I’m going to talk about how
preparedness in this region from three perspectives
1) Company
2) Oil spill response organisations3) Government

11.

When building a macro picture of risk in this region, the preparedness levels of shipping
companies is where there is the greatest variability and least available information.
With some exceptions, the shipping industry has typically followed a philosophy of managing
oil spill risk through insurance rather than spill preparedness. As I will cover later in thispresentation, I think that is starting to change due to a number of factors.
As the shipping industry takes a more proactive approach to spill preparedness as a pillar ofrisk reduction, there are a number of questions companies need to be able to answer toensure they are ready to respond:
Primarily, every company needs to know their risk, have a plan, and be able to accessresources to respond. Assessing the level of preparedness at a company level, means looking
beyond just insurance and being able to answer questions such as:
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Is there an up to date oil spill risk assessment?
Are there contingency plans which document clear actions to take in order to make thenecessary notifications?
Does my organisation have an effective system for managing incidents?
Have the key decision makers and responders in my company received training?
Have we exercised against realistic scenarios?
Does my organisation know what response resources we would need in the event of a spilland do we have contracts or arrangements in place to be able to access them?
How do we know the responding organisations can do what they say they can?
Do we have plans for communicating to our stakeholders and maintaining business
continuity?

12.

Next let’s consider oil spill response organisations. These companies represent a significant
proportion of the capability needed to respond to a spill.
On the screen I’ve shown some of the key organisations in maritime southeast Asia and where
they are based. Most OSROs are domestically focussed but as we know spills don’t respectterritorial boundaries, so it is vital that these organisations can work with other organisations
in a response.
The first thought that comes to most of our minds when thinking about the oil spill capability
maintained by these organisations is stockpiles of equipment and dispersant chemicals andassets such as dedicated spill vessels or aircraft, strategically positioned close to spill hotspots.
But equipment – whilst important – is the tip of the iceberg. To understand how theseorganisations contribute to reducing the potential consequences of a spill, we need to look at
capability under three parts.
Taking equipment first we need to understand the answers to questions such as:
 is the equipment in the stockpile versatile and suitable for a range of response scenarios?
 is the quantity sufficient to match the risk?
 oil spill equipment tends to sit unused for much of its life, so is there a robust preventative
maintenance regime in place to ensure it works when called upon?
 is the equipment packaged in such a way that it can be rapidly mobilised, including where
necessary, clearing customs?
 Is the equipment in the stockpile representative of the latest available technologies?
Looking next at people – which experience tells us are the most important factor in a
successful response: Are the responders competent to perform in a range of roles from equipment operation
through to providing technical advice and recommendations to decision makers?
 Are they experienced in responding to a range of scenarios and working in high-pressure,challenging conditions?
 Are there enough of them and is there a robust on-call system to guarantee theiravailability over a prolonged bases, ensuring safety and fatigue can be managed?
 Are there experts in key areas, for example waste management, oiled wildlife response,
GIS and response information management, and shoreline assessment?
Last, we look at the supporting arrangements in place: is there a robust safety management system in place?
 Are there clear mobilisation protocols, underpinned by effective logistics to get
responders and equipment to the location of the spill?
 Does the organisation have a robust audit programme to provide assurance they are
ready?
 Does the organisation maintain arrangements with other response organisations and a
network of supporting contractors to be able to cascade additional resources, scale up
during a response and provide specialist expertise they may not possess in-house?
In this region, the majority of major oil spill response organisations are part of the Regional
Industry Technical Advisory Group – RITAG – which was established in 2010 as a platform for

13.

The final perspective in considering oil spill preparedness is Government.
The level of oil spill preparedness and response capability varies across different states inmaritime South East Asia, but as a starting point, I have shown which countries have ratified
the International Convention on Oil Preparedness Response and Cooperation 1990.
Ratification of OPRC requires the state to develop of a national system to enable prompt andeffective response to oil pollution by enforcing or having in place: Shipboard oil pollution emergency plan on vessels (or the equivalent Oil pollution
emergency plan for offshore facilities)
 Incident reporting procedures Detailed plans for dealing with such incidents including having an equipment stockpile,and regular exercises Protocols for international collaboration during a major incident.
I want to highlight one important point – whilst I have shown the states that have not yet
ratified the OPRC convention, that does not mean they do not have plans or arrangements inplace.
We know spills don’t respect political or geographic boundaries and so governments haveestablished cooperative agreements, either regional or bilateral, to tackle cross boundary oil
spill incidents.
In this region, the main vehicle for such agreements is the ASEAN Regional Cooperative
Mechanism for Oil Spill Preparedness and Response which has been in place since 2014.
Previously, this mechanism was in development since the Japan Association of Maritime
Safety (JAMS) and the Nippon Foundation initiated the ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian
Nations Oil Spill Response Action Plan in 1991.
A Memorandum of Understanding is in place under this mechanism between Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The memorandum of understanding was put in place in recognition of the threat posed to themarine and coastal environment of the ASEAN region by oil pollution and the importance ofeffective preparation and response to pollution incidents at national, sub-regional andregional levels in order to minimise damage from oil spills.
A key success that has resulted from this inter-governmental cooperation, is the development
and publication of the Regional Oil Spill Contingency Plan which was formally adopted in
November 2018. This It provides a mechanism whereby ASEAN Member States can request
for, and provide mutual support in response to oil spills, to the extent allowed by theirresources
On the screen I have shown the sub-regional agreements that are in place. As you can see thenames of these agreements are quite long, so I won’t read them out!
But I will share a quick example of how they can be effective in reducing the consequences ofa spill in practice.

14.

I’ve spoken now about all steps of the oil spill risk assessment process, but I want to go back to
the macro level picture of oil spill risk in maritime south east Asia that we have created.

15.

At this level it isn’t very precise but you can hopefully see how risk and capability are linked.
I have one observation on this picture:
There is a lot of oil spill response capability distributed across the region. It makes logicalsense to strategically position equipment close to areas of highest risk, and to guarantee
access to capability through owning it.
But maintaining that capability is complex and expensive and the challenge is always to ensure
we don’t have an over-proliferation of response resources, whilst ensuring we have enough of
the right type, at the right time.
As we turn our attention in a moment to the challenges facing the industry and how theyaffect oil spill risk, we should keep in mind opportunities to ensure response capability
remains in balance with that risk. This does not have to be by increasing the number and sizeof stockpiles – it can also be achieved through effective preparedness and pre-planning,leveraging cooperative agreements and robust logistical arrangements so that resources canbe cascaded into a response when needed from wherever they exist.
Having established a picture of the current risk, let’s look forward and try to anticipate thefuture…

16.

Now I will briefly look at some of the major changes and trends at a global and regional level
which may affect oil spill risk. I will suggest how I think they are affecting it, and by doing so,
illustrate some of the challenges we will need to address.
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17.

There are interlinked trends which I am going to talk briefly about by way of a few examples:
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Regulatory
Commercial
Geopolitical
Technology
Sustainability

18.

Regulatory.
One of the hot topics right now – the implementation of IMO 2020 requirements for vessels to
use marine fuels with a maximum sulphur content of 0.5%. There are wide-ranging
implications of this change on cost, compliance and crew.
Pressure on cost trickles down and often results in pressure on crew. We saw earlier that thisis one of the human factors that can increase the likelihood of an incident occurring.
There is also uncertainty about the stability and compatibility of ultra low sulpur fuels withvessel engines. Many I’ve spoken to in industry are anticipating more mechanical breakdowns,
potentially leaving vessels without engine control – if this happens then we can anticipate anincrease in the likelihood of incidents from vessels of all types.
Currently, whilst there has been some analysis, until there is a spill, responders don’t know for
certain how ultra low sulphur fuels will actually behave in the marine environment when
spilled and what impact there will be on response equipment. In reality, responders are notanticipating significant technical challenges and expect the main implications will be on safety
and equipment selection, so it is unlikely this will have a significant bearing on the overall risk
picture, but until there is a spill, it remains an area with some uncertainty.
Another trend we are observing is in the number of jurisdictions requiring vessels todemonstrate response capability in the form of contracted access to an oil spill responseorganisation. This is well established in Japan, China, the US, Honduras and Uruguay to pick a
few examples. It is conceivable this trend will continue and that vessel owners and charterers
who do not already maintain contract coverage with oil spill response organisations will
increasingly be required to do so. Whilst there is a financial impact to this on the industry,measures such as this by regulators help to reduce the consequence of spills on theenvironment when they occur by enabling a response to be rapidly mobilised.

19.

Commercial
Experts are in consensus that economic power will continue to shift to Asia over the next
decade. By 2030, six out of ten of the world’s largest are economies expected to be in Asia,and the region’s share of world GDP is anticipated to exceed 40%.
Shipping will remain the most cost effective means of transporting cargo – be it oil, rawmaterials, finished products or other resources. Population growth and rising prosperity willcontinue to draw global shipping trade routes towards Asia. Developments in port
infrastructure will link Africa to the Region. Flows of materials from Africa to Asia will increase.
The volume of container ships and bulk carriers transitting the shipping lanes of the region inparticular will rise. In addition to their cargo, the largest container ships can carry 10,000 tonsof bunkers which if spilled can be very significant. We saw from the earlier presentation by
ITOPF the implications relatively small amounts of fuel can have on remote environments.
China’s position as the largest oil importers is expected to continue as the country toaddresses growing oil and liquid fuel consumption, build up of strategic reserves and therefinery sector reform allowing independent refiners to import quotas of oil. Japan and South
Korea are also expected to remain in the top five global importers oil.
What that means in terms of oil spill risk is that not only are we likely to have more oil beingtransported by sea through this region, but the existing shipping routes and choke points suchas the Straits of Malacca will become more congested from container and raw material
carrying vessels, indicating a rise in the likelihood of incidents despite rising safety standards.
One area that we hope will have positive indications for spill risk reduction is that new andexpanding port infrastructure in China, Japan and Korea are anticipated to have better port
operations and more up to date charts, which is a factor in managing the likelihood of anincident.
For this aspect, one thing we must keep in mind is that it doesn’t have to be a tanker that hasa spill to affect the industry. We are in it together.
(Reference -largest tankers can carry in excess of 400,000 tons of oil)

20.

Geo-Political
A number of geo-political trends to briefly cover – this is a particularly volatile risk factor but
there are some things we are seeing now which we can anticipate will continue in theimmediate future.
The rise in the number of migrants at sea is anticipated to will continue. Increasing numbers of
stowaways has consequences for ship owners, resulting in delays, diversions and pressures on
the crew. Pressure on the crew being one of the significant human factors that can impact riskof an incident.
At a macro level, we are seeing a global trend of increased nationalism and protectionism
affecting policy decisions and trade partnerships. This has knock on impacts to manyindustries and we have seen volatility in the oil cargo volumes from the US to countries in Asia
(Reuters) in the past couple of years.
Sanctions and political troubles may also affect supply, as may conflict and rising security
concerns on some routes, with increased risk of piracy or terrorism. As we saw last year in the
middle East, tankers have become targets for terrorism. As new ports in Africa open, this will
give rise to new routes, with the associated risks of security and traffic density.
It is also unlikely that disputes over ownership of some territorial waters or military tensions in
the Middle East and South China sea will abate.
How might this affect oil spill risk? It has the potential to create barriers to the international
mobilisation of personnel and equipment which is a fundamental response philosophy forspills from any scenario, but especially shipping spills.
Delays in responding worsen the consequences of a spill, and a protectionist response canworsen the impact of spilled oil on the human and ecological environment if decisions are
influenced by politics or experts’ voices are not heard. Rising protectionism requires stronger
partnerships.

21.

Technology
You will all be well aware of the many promises and predictions about how technology is goingto radically change the shipping industry. We have seen technology’s role in improving safety
standards on board ships, and anticipate this to continue to reduce incident rates.
Cyber-physical systems are an area of growth which promises to improve cost efficiency,
reliability and safety, through the implementation of geo-spatial technology, advanced interconnected sensors, big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence and augmented reality.
Some people predict that over the next ten years, self-steering ships will become standard,
the use of sensors will replace the need for towing and that automation will reduce the risk ofhuman error, though fully automated crew-less ships are not yet on the horizon.
What is likely in the near term, are advances in engine monitoring, remote maintenance andmachine-assisted adjustments to routings based on real-time weather. The successful
implementation of these technologies has clear potential to have a beneficial impact on spill
risk.
But there are also areas for caution in the implementation of technology, and these are largely
related to the human factors we discussed earlier. Placing too much trust in technology canlead to over-reliance on it and complacency. Some incidents have been attributed to crew
being on their cell phones.
If and when technology fails to perform as expected, the crew may not have full situationalawareness of what is really happening and may have slower reactions or reduced capability todeal with the situation.
When sailing on bigger ships in more crowded waters, the need to effectively manage thehuman-technology interface is clear, but complex. The shipping industry is a traditional one
and humans by nature are generally slow to adapt to change, particularly when it impacts
them personally or is seen as a threat.
Addressing the changes in human behaviour needed to interact with autonomous systems on
ships will be significant, and especially important in high risk and complex operations.
In addition to the benefits that technology will bring to reduce spill risk, and the importanceneeded to ensure human factors can be addressed alongside technology implementation toensure these benefits are realised, there is a darker side…
As vessels incorporate more technology and safety systems reliant on technology, cyberattacks and incidents resulting from them are set to become more prominent. We have seen
the disruption caused by cyber attacks on the Port of Rotterdam and on Maersk – resulting inpressure exerted elsewhere in their organisations and systems until the recovery. In future will
we see cyber attacks on technology laden vessels, which could leave a vessel adrift without
power or worse?
It is important to ensure that cybersecurity and cyber-resilience maintain pace with the
adoption of other technologies to ensure existing and emerging cyber threats from criminals,

22.

Sustainability
It is interesting how shipping’s crucial role in world trade goes largely unseen by the wider
public. Brand recognition of shipping companies and related organisations – despite theirimmense size and value – is generally low.
The maritime industry continues to take steps to reduce its impact on the environment but isstill perceived by many in society as being largely reactive to legislation, rather than proactivein pursuit of corporate social responsibility.
The rise of the socially and environmentally conscious consumer will continue to impact
governments and corporations and gain media attention. In turn many people anticipate rising
environmental concerns of investors and shareholders to create higher expectations forenvironmental performance on the shipping industry.
One example of this is the Poseidon Principles framework. This framework was developed by
global shipping banks – Citi, Societe Generale and DNB, together with industry representatives
and expert support.
The framework is an agreement between currently 17 signatory financial institutions
representing approximately 30% of global ship financing who are committed to improving therole of maritime finance in tackling shipping’s climate impacts.
Whilst the focus of the framework is on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, there isrecognition within the group that the continued success of the maritime sector is linked to thewellbeing of society and the environment, and that the signatory banks are starting to use
investment levers to influence the environmental focus of companies they provide finance to.
The Poseidon Principles are intended to evolve over time to include other issues where thecollective influence of financial institutions can help improve the contribution the industry andits lenders can make to society and the environment.
The final point on sustainability is that the response to spills, when they happen will continue
to attract even greater media attention and scrutiny from an increasingly activist public - thelouder and stronger voices of communities whether they are directly impacted, or on theother side of the planet, will be increasingly difficult to predict.
This was captured neatly in this quote from International Salvage Union (ISU) President, Mr
Richard Janssen. He said “Zero tolerance of large marine spills has been established for sometime, but we have yet to see the reaction to a major incident in this era of Extinction
Rebellion.”
Whilst there are clearly costs associated with investing in spill preparedness, in the future
there may be greater costs in not doing so – if that even remains an option. But with greater
environmental and social focus, we can expect improved spill preparedness across theindustry, thus reducing risk and future proofing our organisations to ensure they remain
relevant, competitive and sustainable.

23.

I’d like to conclude with a few final thoughts.
I’ve covered a lot in the last forty minutes or so.
I hope that the perspective I’ve shared about the current risk and future challenges for the
shipping industry in maritime south east Asia has been interesting, relevant and enabled you
to “join some dots”. I also hope I’ve provoked some thought.
When we consider risk, we are of course dealing with uncertainty. As we built up a high levelpicture of the current oil spill risk for south east Asia, we have been able to consider some ofthe obvious and perhaps less obvious factors that influence the risk today.
We have also seen how through company, response organisation and governmental
preparedness, many need to collaborate to contribute to reducing the risk.
We live and work in a world that is increasing volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The
only constant is change.
It is clear there are numerous interlinked trends which will bring about changes that impact
our globe, region and industry. We can’t affect the trends but we can anticipate them and try
to understand what they mean for our business and in particular how they may beneficiallyand adversely affect the risk of oil spills occurring.
In closing:
As we consider the risk of oil spills in the future, we know the issues are shared - I do believethat preparedness through continued collaboration will equip us well to navigate thechallenges ahead.
Thank you very much.