Spill Management News

The Regional Clean Sea Organization (RECSO), an oil industry co-operative organisation in the Middle East, has hosted First RECSO Enviro Spill Conference and Exhibition.In delivering the keynote speech at the opening ceremony, Abdulhakim A. Al-Gouhi, vice president of Industrial Services with Saudi Aramco, called on members to collaborate to protect the pristine Gulf environment through prevention, preparedness, and response.“We come together to demonstrate our unlimited commitment toward protecting the marine environment from any harmful effects of pollution, in general, and of oil spills in particular,” said Al-Gouhi.He noted that Saudi Aramco demonstrated its expertise in oil spill mitigation at the height of the Gulf War in 1991…

Myanmar is the latest country to benefit from International Maritime Organization (IMO)’s work to enhance marine oil spill preparedness and response in the ASEAN region.A press note from the UN agency informed that a training course for senior officials and members of the national oil spill management team is taking place in Yangon, Myanmar (12-14 November).The training is focused on the effective response to oil spills, including on both managing risks from shipping and incident management. It builds on on-going efforts by the Myanmar National Task Force for the development of the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan, which is reaching finalization.The training course coincides with the completion of the plan…

The 4th Edition of Oil Spill India (OSI) 2016 is all set to be launched at the JW Marriot Sahar, Mumbai. Keeping with the current trend and the government policy of "Make in India" the theme selected for this two-day event scheduled for 11th and 12th August 2016 is "Commitment, Synergy, Excellence. For the first time Mumbai will play host to this unique major event “OSI 2016”, whereas the first three editions had been successfully hosted in GOA. In year 2011, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC), Directorate of General Shipping and the Indian Coast Guard, in association with iTEN Media recognized a need for an industry forum to deliberate & collaborate on response frameworks for Oil Discharges in the region, as same was on discount.

Putting to rest the fears and misconceptions about what responder immunity means and what it will eventually do. It’s all good. As many in the response industry, and in many cases the marine industry in general appreciate, there has been an extended effort to enact an enhanced responder immunity regime following the lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon incident. It is hard to believe that we only recently observed the fourth anniversary of this unfortunate incident. And…

The Benefits to the Scope of Coverage in an Expanded Responder Immunity Regime are many. The response industry has been extremely supportive of a coalition effort to work with Congress to enact enhancements to the current responder immunity provisions enacted by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (“OPA 90”). Unfortunately, however, Congress has not taken immediate action following the Deepwater Horizon incident, which occurred almost 3.5 years ago, like it did following the Exxon Valdez incident in 1989 to enact legislation to remedy deficiencies identified as a result of the incident. Congress acted in approximately 18 months following the Exxon Valdez incident.

On September 17, McAllister Towing and Reinauer Transportation will be partnering with the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound and Sector New York in a major simulated marine accident and pollution incident on the waters of Long Island Sound. Responders will be faced with a simulated grounding and subsequent oil spill impacting the waters and shoreline of Connecticut and New York. The exercise is part of the National Preparedness for Response Exercise Program (PREP), a voluntary program bringing together industry and government to meet the exercise and preparedness requirements of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, legislation enacted following the Exxon Valdez.

This is a good time to look aft and reflect on the accomplishments achieved in 2012, as well as to the distant horizon to see what challenges loom in 2013, and beyond. It is fair to say that the Coast Guard and salvage industry have come a long way in the last few years with implementation of a salvage and firefighting final rule; first published in December 2008, delayed until February 22, 2011, to provide for harmonization with the changes to the vessel and facility amendments for response plans.

It has been over 2.5 years since the tragic incident involving the Deepwater Horizon occurred, resulting in the deaths of 11 and injuries to 17 men working on the platform and the discharge of approximately five million barrels of oil. The cleanup response required thousands of responders working several months to contain and clean up the spill under challenging conditions. In addition, immediately following the explosion emergency response vessels rushed to the rig to save lives and render assistance to those in peril.

At the legislative hearing on the use of dispersants in the BP oil spill, Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator of the U.S. Chairman Mikulski, Ranking Member Shelby and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on the role of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill response. My testimony today will provide you with an overview of EPA’s role and activities in the affected Gulf Coast region following the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon mobile offshore drilling unit explosion and resulting oil spill as well as a summary of our primary environmental activities, including dispersant use, waste management, and beach cleanup.

Minerals Management Service (MMS) Director Liz Birnbaum today highlighted the 20th anniversary of the MMS Gulf of Mexico Region’s Unannounced Oil Spill Drill Program. The first unannounced drill with an offshore oil and gas operator in the Gulf was held on July 25, 1989. Since the first unannounced drill, an additional 273 drills have been held in the Gulf. The MMS designs the drill to exercise an oil and gas and pipeline operator’s Oil Spill Response Plan and evaluates its spill management team’s effectiveness in responding to a simulated spill event. “While preventing oil spills is our top priority throughout the offshore energy exploration and extraction process, operators must be ready to respond to a spill event,” Birnbaum said.

Corbett & Holt, LLC and Gallagher Marine Systems, Inc. announced that they have reached agreement on a merger that will combine the two companies. This move is designed to join two of the premier providers of Qualified Individual and spill management team services and compliance support for the U.S. Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) and other U.S. state and national oil and hazardous substance pollution laws and regulations. The companies will continue to operate as Gallagher Marine Systems and Corbett & Holt under a joint management team. The joint management team will be made up of Biff Holt as managing director, Jack Gallagher as Director of response operations, and Charles Corbett as director of technical services.

The holidays this past year presented unique challenges for the salvage industry in the U.S. On Friday Evening, November 26 (Thanksgiving Weekend) the fully laden 60,000 dwt tanker Athos 1 struck an object on the bottom of the Delaware River causing a sizable crude oil spill and a serious list on-board the vessel. A few days later, on December 8, the fully laden 70,000-ton bulk carrier Selendang Ayu lost power off Dutch Harbor, Alaska. It grounded and broke into two pieces spilling both cargo and bunkers into the sea. As the Athos 1 is a tanker, it had a USCG approved Vessel Response Plan (VRP) which was activated immediately. The "Qualified Individual" (required to be named in her VRP by the USCG) activated her Spill Management Team within minutes.

The U.S. Coast Guard recently issued interim guidance for the development and review of oil spill response plans for nontank vessels. Since 1993, tank vessels have carried oil spill response plans. A recent legislative change will soon mandate similar response plans for most other ships. The problem is that the legislation requires nontank vessels to have the response plans sooner than the Coast Guard can promulgate regulations in accordance with standard procedures. Thus, the agency is unofficially advising stakeholders on how to comply with the legislation. Stakeholders will ignore the unofficial advice at their peril. The legislation has real teeth.

The Japanese Shipowners' Association (JSA) and the Norwegian Shipowners' Association (NSA) organised a bilateral high-level maritime round table conference in Tokyo on 20 May 2005. The round table was attended by the Norwegian Minister of Trade and Industry and the Japanese Assistant Vice-Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, high-level representatives of Class NK and Det Norske Veritas Classification as well as the presidents of JSA and NSA. Japanese and Norwegian interests control two of the world’s largest merchant fleets. The conference aimed at reinforcing already strong ties between the shipping communities of the two countries…

Response teams continue to clean up an oil spill around and underneath Pier 91 at Smith Cove in Elliott Bay today. The main area of impact of the oil appears to be contained underneath Pier 91 of the Port of Seattle. The cleanup is being coordinated with the Port of Seattle. The assessment and labor intensive cleanup of the impacted shoreline is to continue into Friday and possibly the weekend. Cleanup crews are aggressively working to remove all the spilled oil on the deck and hull of the Songa Hua, and have recovered approximately one gallon of the spilled intermediate fuel oil from Elliott Bay, while oil stains and some recoverable oil are visible on the cement pilings underneath pier 91 and along the rocky "rip-rap" on the shore.

The owners/managers of the Bermuda Islander, a Netherlands registered 340-foot container vessel, have activated The O’Brien’s Group, a spill management consultant, and agreed to take over the coordination of, and accept costs relating to recovery and clean-up operations of an oil spill in the upper Delaware Bay that happened Tuesday. The owners/managers, JR Ship Management, have been cooperating with the Unified Command since Thursday afternoon. Clean up costs had initially been funded by the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. The Bermuda Islander was determined to be one of the vessels of interest based on information received as part of an ongoing investigation into the source of the spill.

The O’Brien’s Group celebrated the grand opening of a new state-of-the-art Command Post and Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Slidell, La. O’Brien’s previous Command Center was destroyed when Hurricane Katrina devastated the New Orleans area in 2005. The Command Center has been the foundation for O’Brien’s emergency response management services, which are provided to over 150 oil and gas company clients, as well as local, state and federal agencies. O’Brien’s also provides Qualified Individual (QI) and Spill Management Team (SMT) services to the shipping industry representing over 5,000 ships operating in U.S. territorial seas. Emergency calls received by O’Brien’s clients worldwide are managed from the Slidell Command Post and EOC.

Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Buzzards Bay, Mass., offers a variety of STCW and specialized training programs for the maritime industry. Two of these programs are especially unique in their respective focus on maritime safety. One fosters prevention of maritime accidents, while the other addresses response measures that need to be taken once a maritime accident occurs. The academy’s new Shiphandling Training Program in Manned Models is designed to provide pilots and ship’s officers with a better understanding of the art of shiphandling during a 5-day course of instruction and practical underway maneuvers in scale model replica ships at a training site comprised of buoyed channels, docks and anchorages.

The evolution of podded propulsion systems has gained steam in recent years, as a number of notable new systems have entered the market with new options. The era of podded propulsion is here and now, and despite some technical glitches with the systems - notably faster than anticipated bearing wear - it is safe to assume that the system's popularity will only grow with experience. Pods, obviously, are not the single solution for every marine application. As with any other technology, limitations exist. However, podded propulsion solutions have opened more marine technological avenues than they have closed as Harri Kulovaara, senior vice president of fleet operations and newbuilding…

At press time, the Coast Guard approved a repair and transport plan for the Bouchard Transportation B-120 barge responsible for the Buzzard's Bay oil spill. The swift current in the Cape Cod Canal prevents divers from installing a patch at the current location. The barge will be moved from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Bourne, Mass., to the Esco fuel terminal in Sandwich, Mass., for temporary repairs before continuing to New York. The Coast Guard and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts continue to direct the clean up operations in the Buzzard's Bay oil spill. -- More than 750 people are involved in shoreline clean up and spill management operations. -- An estimated 175 volunteers are involved in wildlife rehabilitation and related activities.

PCCI, Inc. was awarded an indefinite quantity contract by the Atlantic Division of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) for services in support of the Navy's Oil Pollution Response Program at Various Locations within the Atlantic Division, NAVFAC's area of responsibility. PCCI responsibilities include: development and updates of facility response plans required under OPA 90, oil and hazardous substance spill contingency plans for both domestic and overseas locations, integrated contingency plans (ICPs), SPCC plans, the conduct of drills and exercises to meet PREP guidelines, spill management and other spill response training, and the design of spill prevention systems. The contract includes two one year options for the same professional skills.

The U.S. has the most stringent, comprehensive marine pollution laws of any country on the planet. The last 30 years have marked an evolution from little legal enforcement to strict liability for marine pollution. One company, WQIS, a provider of marine pollution liability insurance in the U.S., celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Two events proved pivotal in developing the United States' liability enforcement of marine pollution laws. In 1967, the Torrey Canyon spill off the Scilly Isles in England provided some of the most shocking images ever seen in marine pollution cleanup. Faced with an overwhelming spill and the inability to contain it, Royal Air Force fighter planes dropped napalm bombs in an effort to burn off the oil and sink the ship.

We all know OPA 1990 contained directions to EPA and the USCG concerning incident response planning and handling with respect to oil. Many of us forget the Act contained similar requirements for chemical incidents. The major difference between the two was oil pollution planning requirements were to be completed by EPA and the USCG within a specified time. There were no such time-directed response planning requirements concerning chemical incidents within the Act. Initially, in 1990, the USCG took the lead on oil spill response planning and EPA was to take the lead on chemical response planning. For some reason, EPA was unable to move forward and develop effective rules for chemical response plan incident planning.