Response Equipment News

The IMO is urging Member States to contribute equipment to help UN-led efforts to prevent a possible catastrophic oil spill from the FSO Safer, an ageing and rapidly decaying floating storage offshore (FSO) unit moored 4.8 nautical miles off the Red Sea coast of Yemen.A converted super tanker, the FSO Safer contains an estimated 150,000 metric tonnes (approximately 1.1 million barrels) of crude oil, four times the amount spilled during the Exxon Valdez incident in 1989. It has been moored at Ras Isa since 1988 where it had been receiving…

Two new oil spill response barges were recently completed at ASL Shipyard in Singapore for Western Canada Marine Response Corporation (WCMRC).The two 3,500 tonne barges, Sentinel 303 and Sentinel 304, will be delivered to WCMRC in October, with arrival in Canada by the end of 2022. The response barges will join WCMRC’s fleet of pollution response vessels stationed along the south coast of British Columbia.These new barges represent a significant enhancement to the pollution response capabilities already in place and will benefit the entire local maritime industry…

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s National Oil Spill Response Research and Renewable Energy Test Facility, known as Ohmsett, has now reopened after undergoing significant refurbishment over the past eight months as part of BSEE’s ongoing maintenance plan. Originally constructed and operated by the U.S. EPA in 1974, the facility was passed to the U.S. Navy and then to the Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service in 1990. Today, it is the only facility in the U.S. conducting full-scale oil spill response research, equipment testing and training using live oil.

Ship repair yard Guam Shipyard will pay nearly $70,000 and take measures to improve its facilities following multiple pollution violations discovered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2018.The EPA said on Tuesday its settlement with Guam Industrial Services, Inc., doing business as Guam Shipyard, includes a $68,388 penalty as well as mandatory installation of preventative measures to reduce the discharge of stormwater pollutants into Apra Harbor.Guam Shipyard operates a ship repair facility on Cabras Island in Piti…

Damen Shipyards Group has been awarded a contract to design a new offshore terminal tug for Edison Chouest Offshore. Chouest will initially build two ASD Tugs 5016 at its Gulf Ship yard in Gulfport, Miss., for completion by May 2022.Damen said it has designed the 50-meter ASD Tug 5016 to provide escort, hold-back, hose-handling and maintenance duties offshore Guyana. The tug will deliver 120 tons of static bollard pull delivered by twin C-280 engines. It will also have a hybrid system that will be engaged when loitering.

The large 203,130 dwt bulk carrier Wakashio has run hard aground in an environmentally sensitive area off the east coast of Mauritius, on Saturday evening.The 300-meter, Panamanian-flagged vessel was sailing under ballast without cargo through a major shipping lane in the Indian Ocean when it went off course and grounded on the reefs of Pointe d'Esny, while en route from China to Brazil. Its last port call was in Singapore.The cause of the grounding is unknown. Weather at the time was clear…

When discussing the arrival of autonomous workboats, many – especially those developing the technologies that enable them – say it’s is not a matter of if, but when. In fact, autonomous harbor tugs are already being put to the test in Singapore, where authorities hope to establish the technological infrastructure to enable fully autonomous ship operations. In the U.S., an autonomous vessel was shown to be able to respond to marine oil spills.But is autonomy really the future?

On March 3, the Coast Guard published a notice that Martin Midstream Partners (MMP), a petrochemical transport and storage company, was seeking approval to modify terminal operations in Beaumont, Texas, along the Sabine-Neches Waterway. If approved, MMP would expand its liquefied hazardous gas (LHG) operations, both in volume and products. Instead of just handling ammonia the change would allow shipments of butane, propane, ethane, ethylene and propylene.Critically, MMP’s expansion would increase LHG vessel transit from 24 ships to as many as 350 per year.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered Guam Shipyard to obtain a stormwater discharge permit and to achieve compliance with the Clean Water Act for discharges of pollutants into Apra Harbor, Guam.“Ship repair facilities must have stormwater pollution controls to protect coastal ecosystems,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Mike Stoker. “This order will prevent pollution from reaching Apra Harbor.”Guam Shipyard operates a ship repair facility on Cabras Island in Piti, Guam. It has operated industrial activities, including boat repair, sandblasting, high pressure washing, painting and material storage since at least January 2016.EPA inspected the facility on September 2018 and found multiple violations of the Clean Water Act.

As a part of its cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration (MARAD), Boston-based Sea Machines Robotics announces that it has successfully demonstrated its autonomous systems in action on board a Kvichak Marco skimmer boat during events held along the Portland harbor earlier today.Sea Machines’ technology opens a new era of capability for the marine industry, and today the company demonstrated its ability to increase the safety, productivity and predictability of response for marine oil-spill operations.

Sea Machines Robotics has been a progressive leader in advancing autonomy in the maritime space, and today it announced a deal with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MarAd) to demonstrate the value of Sea Machines’ autonomous technology in marine oil-spill response ops. The scope of the deal has Sea Machines installing its SM300 autonomous-command system aboard a Marine Spill Response Corp. (MSRC)-owned MARCO skimming vessel and will train MSRC personnel to operate the system.

Bouchard Transportation Co., Inc. announced Friday that one of its barges has ended its shipyard period after completing a major overhaul.The work was performed at Gulf Marine Repair in Tampa, Fl. She left the shipyard earlier this week.Bouchard Barge No. 295 (B. No. 295) left Gulf Marine Repair in Tampa, Fla. earlier this week following an extensive scope of repair and upgrade work, a Bouchard spokesperson told MarineLink.Approximately 90 percent of the the barge’s main deck plate has been replaced…

A training event on oil spill preparedness and response for countries in eastern Africa, was held in Dar Es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania (6-9 November).The  relevant government agency representatives with responsibilities in spill response in the countries like Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, Somalia, United Republic of Tanzania, and Uganda have participated in the training."In the event of a marine oil spill, relevant government agencies in the affected region need to manage and coordinate a response," a release from International Maritime Organization (IMO) explained the scenario.The…

The salvage operations of the container vessel MV SSL Kolkata that had caught fire last month, is continuing in rough weather conditions with 2- 4 metre swells. The vessel is grounded at about 8 nautical miles off the ecologically sensitive Sundarbans since the 13th of last month when its cargo area had caught fire following an explosion. All 22 crew members were   rescued by the Indian Coast Guard. The Directorate General of Shipping and its allied office, Mercantile Marine Department, Kolkata, Govt. of West Bengal, the Indian Coast Guard and various authorities have been constantly monitoring the developments as the salvage efforts continue.

With the rise in transport by sea of chemicals and gases, in bulk and containerized, adequate preparedness for response to potential spill incidents involving hazardous and noxious substances (HNS) is increasingly important. The Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea (REMPEC) is hosting a regional workshop on response to such incidents, in Valletta, Malta (20-21 June). Regional cooperation on oil and HNS spill response and contingency planning is an efficient and cost-effective way of preparing for possible spills – through the sharing of information, knowledge and/or response equipment. A recent example of cooperation in this field was an agreement signed between Cyprus, Greece and Israel following support from REMPEC.

More than 40 U.S. Coast Guard, State of Texas, maritime industry and local emergency responders attended the American Salvage Association’s (ASA) Marine Salvage and Emergency Response training course last month in the Houston-Galveston area presented by the ASA Training Committee. Designed to train students on how to coordinate proactive marine casualty response operations, this two-day program exposed students to a wide variety of course modules led by ASA members and industry experts in salvage law, naval architecture, commercial diving, environmental policy, and emergency response operations. “Since 2003, the ASA has presented a number of Marine Salvage courses every year to Federal…

Norwegian suppliers Framo, Maritime Partner, Norbit Aptomar, and NorLense have come together to create the OSRV (Oil Spill Recovery Vessel) Group to offer a complete oil spill response solution. “Our aim is to be a one-stop-shop where we pool our efforts and act as a total systems supplier of safe, highly functional, and well-tested technology. The emergency response equipment has undergone thorough testing and quality assurance drawing on 40 years of oil spill response experience,” says Jørgen Brandt Theodorsen, Area Manager, Oil & Gas Pumping Systems, at Framo.

Work to remove a commercial fishing vessel aground off American Samoa has resumed in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Gita. Hazardous weather conditions on Friday forced responders to delay efforts to salvage the grounded 88-foot Taiwanese-flagged vessel Chui Zai Fa No. 1, which is split in half with the bow and stern portions sitting side by side in the surf approximately 300-yards off Leone Bay. U.S. Coast Guard officials resumed work with local authorities and the vessel’s owner to develop a plan to salvage the Chui Zai Fa No.

Salvage and marine firefighting are complex response efforts often undertaken in adverse weather and sea conditions. While no two oil spill responses are the same, the diversity of variation between any two oil spill responses is not near as great as the diversity of any two salvage and marine firefighting responses. As a result, salvage and marine firefighting response providers must plan for and anticipate a wide range of variation in what will be required to address their portion of a marine casualty. The U.S.

Oil spills, trash, debris, sediment, chemicals: how do we keep our waterways clean? If an oil spill happens on water, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA90) has very clear rules on who is responsible for paying for cleanup costs. Most oil spills can be traced to the spiller – a pipeline owner, oil tanker, shipper, railroad or trucking company. “Pointing a finger” at the alleged party may be why this type of pollution is referred to as “point source.” If the oil spill is ruled an accident and the polluter is not legally responsible…

To test and demonstrate Singapore’s readiness to tackle oil and chemical spills, a multi-agency joint chemical spill exercise was conducted on Friday. Organized by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) the exercise took place at the conclusion of the 10th International Chemical and Oil Pollution Conference & Exhibition (ICOPCE), held in conjunction with the Singapore Maritime Week 2017. ChemSpill 2017 comprised a tabletop management exercise at MPA's Port Operations Control Centre Vista and a full scale chemical and oil spill response equipment deployment. A total of 150 personnel from 25 agencies participated in the table top exercise and seaward exercise, located along Raffles Reserved Anchorage.

Lamor recently commissioned itsLSC 4C Side Collecting Oil Skimming System for Guam’s Oil Spill Response Operations Company (OSROCO) and T&T Marine Salvage (T&T) making it the largest skimming system in the region. OSROCO, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cabras Marine, and T&T operate the skimming system as well as an array of small crafts, and other specialized response equipment. OSROCO, Cabras and T&T employees are trained and certified in accordance with the U.S. Federal Government’s oil spill response and safety standards.

In mid-February, Lamor Corporation demonstrated a new way to recover oil by deploying the Lamor Marine Oil Spill Sweeper LMOS 15 Speed Skimming system in Halifax, Canada in cooperation with their local representative, Griffin Engineered Systems, for Canadian response organizations and companies, represented by Eastern Canada Response Corporation (ECRC), Canadian Coast Guard, Department of Defense (DND), ALERT and RMI Marine. Despite the harsh weather conditions Halifax harbor that day…