Just When Is Oil Spill Preparedness Too Expensive?
Richard H. Johnson Technical Director
ITOPF
PAJ Oil Spill Symposium 2016
“Maintaining Future Effective Preparedness against Oil Spills”
Tokyo, JAPAN - January 28-29, 2016

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Interesting although the attendance at larger tanker spills is decreasing, ITOPF isattending more non tanker spills (primarily bunker spills). This figure shows thenumber of tanker vs non-tanker incidents attended by ITOPF. This simply highlights
our growing role in smaller incidents from non-tanker vessels, primarily due toincreased environmental and claims awareness worldwide.
Slide14:
NASlide15:•

But it’s worth remembering that she was actually a fairly modest sizedcontainership, as was MSC NAPOLI, RENA and MSC CHITRA.

•Containerships are now the largest ships at sea, and are getting much, muchbigger.

•EMMA MAERSK has 13,800 TEUs of capacity, and can carry 17,000 MT ofbunker oil – Triple E Class are 18,000 TEU – six times the size of BARELI, andpotentially six times as complicated to handle if there was an incident involving
a vessel this size.

•

So it’s worth being prepared for incidents involving containerships and using thelessons learned.

•For example identifying storage and handling facilities for dangerous goods andproviding key workers with HAZMAT training and regular drills.

Slide16:•

And responding to containership incidents can be particularly complex

•Incidents like the MSC NAPOLI in the UK and COSCO BUSAN in the US
caused a lot of concern•

And the MSC CHITRA in India and the RENA incident in New Zealand resulted
in the biggest spills that these two countries had ever faced•

And it’s not just the oil that’s the problem as we’ll discuss…

Slide17-19:
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methyl tertiary-butyl ether•

Iso-butyl-aldehyde•

PCC Project 2: Co‐operation and capacity building on Hazardous and Noxious

Substance (HNS) preparedness and response in the Straits of Malacca andSingapore
Slide21:
Regulation, Conventions and good practice play an important role in improving safety
and environmental awareness. Nevertheless, there are a number of IMO Conventionsand Guidelines out there that have taken many years of painstaking work to prepareand, as the Secretary General of the IMO said only a few weeks ago, for them to beeffective, they need to be implemented properly, otherwise there is no point in havingthem.
A case in point is the Guidelines on Places of Refuge for Ships in Need of Assistance thatwere drawn up following the ERIKA incident in December 1999 and which gained moreurgency following the CASTOR incident in the Mediterranean sea in December 2000
and then again following the PRESTIGE in November 2002.
Despite these Guidelines having been adopted more than 10 years ago in December
2003, we still hear of instances where ships have been denied a place of refuge, like themost recent case, the MARITIME MAISE, which caught fire following a collision on 29thDecember last year and was repeatedly denied a place of refuge, only eventually being
allowed into the Port of Ulsan, Korea, on 11th April, almost 4 months after the initial
incident.

She contained almost 5,000 bbls of HFO, and laden with some 19,000 MT p‐Xylene,
7,000 MT Styrene Monomer and 3,600 MT of Acrylonitrile,
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NASlide24:
Very quickly,
Some basics…
Major spills are usually associated with serious casualties such as groundings, collisions,structural failures and fires and explosions and typically occur offshore or outside ports
The volume of oil transported within a given area is itself an indication of spill risk fromcasualties, but if this is combined with other factors such as high vessel traffic densities
or hazards such as bad weather and narrow, congested straits, there is a goodcorrelation with previous major spill accidents (>700 tonnes or 5,000bbl)
Regions at greatest risk are Mediterranean and Wider Caribbean. South East Asia arevery high risk.
We will look at oil transportation changes in the East Asia Seas region. The region has
some busy traffic routes through natural navigation hazards eg Malacca Straight,
whose route is 1.5 miles across at its Narrowest (Phillips Strait in Singapore Strait)!
Risk Depends on what Tanker is doing as to what its at risk from. Many countries atrisk of major spills are not large oil importers and the threat therefore from tankers
transiting nearby waters.
Intermediate spills (7-700 tonnes) usually occur in ports or their approaches, either
during routine oil transfer such as loading, discharging and bunkering or as a result of
less severe casualties such as low energy collisions, groundings and berthing accidents.
Difference between intermediate spill risks seems to be down to individual countries notregions. -Countries which import large quantities of oil appear to be at greater risk thanthose which are major exporters.
ITOPF stats of tanker incidents show Bigger incidents, such as collisions, hull failuresetc may well happen away from the coast – passing tanker syndrome
Intermediate spills…
Slide25-26:
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Slide27:
Amenity areas, ecologically sensitive areas, sea water intakes, fisheries, mariculture,seabirds and marine mammals and other resources likely to be threatened by an oil
spill should be identified. Since it will not be possible to give equal protection to allsensitive resources, priorities need to be determined. Account should be taken of thepractical problems as well as the relative economic and environmental values of eachresource and their sensitivity to oil pollution. Seasonal variations e.g. of beaches andbreeding areas should be noted. Information on the location and sensitivity of resources
and priorities for protection is frequently provided in the form of maps annexed to thecontingency plan.
Slide28
So what have we learned. What has changed....
Lots have been done to reduce the number of spills.
Spills still happen
We know we need to be prepared
Spills can have a large economic and environmental impact, particularly if not dealt
with efficiently
So
Slide 29:
OPRC-90

Article 6OPRC, not new but encapsulates the spitit of preparedness and assistance beteen
industry and government and between neighbouring states.
6.1 Establish a national system for responding promptly and effectively to oil pollution
incidents.
6.2 Each Party, within its capabilities either individually or through bilateral or
multilateral co-operation and, as appropriate, in co-operation with the oil and shipping
industries, port authorities and other relevant entities, shall establish:- a minimum level of pre-positioned equipment- a programme of training & exercises- detailed plans & communication capabilities for responding to an oil
pollution incident- a mechanism or arrangement to co-ordinate the response with, if
appropriate, the capabilities to mobilize the necessary resources.
Government and Industry involvement in Spill Response
Everyone’s goal should be to mitigate the effects of oil pollution damage, both
environmentally and economically

The best approach of dealing with a problem is through cooperation
Government has a responsibility for looking after its citizens and its coastlines
Shipowners are serving a demand for products by citizens within that country(90% of world’s products carried by sea transportation)
Clearly defined rules of the game. Correct expectations of each other-Processes in place to enable success-Finger pointing and casting blame are counterproductive

Slide30:
Despite these Guidelines having been adopted more than 10 years ago in December
2003, we still hear of instances where ships have been denied a place of refuge, like themost recent case, the MARITIME MAISE, which caught fire following a collision on 29th
December last year and was repeatedly denied a place of refuge, only eventually being
allowed into the Port of Ulsan, Korea, on 11th April, almost 4 months after the initialincident.

She contained almost 5,000 bbls of HFO, and laden with some 19,000 MT p‐Xylene,
7,000 MT Styrene Monomer and 3,600 MT of Acrylonitrile,
Slide31:This map shows the widespread ratification of the two tier compensation system acrossthe world with those countries in purple having the highest level of compensation
available and those coloured in blue, the lowest level.
‘Adequately prepared ‘also means ensuring that there is sufficient compensation to pay
for oil pollution damage in the event of spills
These compensation Conventions leave the issue of responsibility for clean-up of oil
pollution to national and local governments, meaning that they can decide how best toarrange the clean-up in their own jurisdictions.
This arrangement respects the fact that they alone can determine the priorities forclean-up and are ultimately responsible for the welfare of their citizens.
However, whatever arrangement is put in place the expectation is that the shipping andoil industry will play their part. The provisions in the Convention text provides for asystem of compulsory insurance and strict liability, with the quid pro quo, that theship-owner is able to limit his liability. The shipping and oil industry may also play amore active role in any response itself, such as through the provision of technicalsupport but I’ll talk about this more a little later.
More in next ppt.

Thus, for economic losses falling under these Conventions, claims are made in the first
instance against the ship-owner and, if a country has ratified the Fund Convention andclaims exceed this limit, against the Fund, which as we heard yesterday, will pay claims
up to the Fund limit by placing a levy on oil receivers.
Slide32:Bearing in mind what ITOPF’s statistic have shown for the risk of non-tanker spills
may be more countries should ratifiy the Bunkers Convention, which provides
compensation for damage caused from spills of fuel oil from non-tankers
Discussion about compensation for spills of bunkers took place at the same time as thediscussion of the CLC and Fund Conventions for tankers but it was thought toocomplicated to introduce this as oil carried as cargo and oil carried as bunkers wereclearly quite different and involved different potentially paying parties.
Nevertheless, about 15 years ago discussion of a separate convention applicable to spillsof bunker oil from all ships began and in March 2001, the Bunkers Convention wasfinally adopted.
It is now in force in 64 different countries,
Slide33-35:
Slide36:
On 9th December 2014, the tank vessel SOUTHERN STAR 7 collided on the Shela Riverin the Sundarbans region of Bangladesh resulting in a release of an estimated 350,000
litres of heavy fuel oil cargo. The spilled oil spread to threaten an internationally
important area of mangrove forest and given the potential impact of the oil spill, theGovernment of Bangladesh (GoB), through the UNDP office in Bangladesh, on 15th
December requested international technical support.
A Joint United Nations Sundarbans Oil Spill Response mission, composed of a United
Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team, working in partnershipwith the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and with the support ofnational and international experts, was mobilised. The objective of the Joint United
Nations mission was to support the oil spill response of GoB.
Towards the completion of the mission’s work in Bangladesh at the end of 2014, the UK
Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) contacted theInternational Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF) with a view to themproviding further technical assistance to GoB, UNDP and other parties still working torespond to the pollution incident.
ITOPF travelled to site on 6th January 2015 on a 60 day aid mission agreement withDFID. Following meetings with DFID and UNDP, the following work plan wasdeveloped that addressed some of the key recommendations made by the Joint UN
mission’s report.
Slide 37-51:
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At 13:50 on Wednesday 7th January the HOEGH OSAKA re‐floated on her own underthe influence of
currents and winds. Svitzer had tugs connected to keep her from moving into theshipping lanes.
Once afloat she remained stable (as modelled by the naval architect) and after a periodof monitoring she was towed to the designated, preferred, anchorage. Salvors are using
the vessel’s anchor, combined with tugs, to keep her in position. It is hoped that evenduring the forecasted bad weather, work can begin to start pumping out the majority ofthe estimated 3,000 MT of water that has accumulated within decks 1‐6. Salvors haveconfirmed that there is oil (likely to be a combination of diesel and lubes from the cargo)on the surface of this water. However, theEnvironment Group (EG) and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) are content
for the salvors to pump from well below the oil and discharge the water overboard.
Approximately 200 MT ofSlide 53-62:
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