Are We Prepared for a Major Oil Spill

WMU-IMO Conference Oil Spill Risk Management

Are we prepared for a major oil spill in the Baltic Sea?

Bernt Stedt,, HELCOM RESPONSE Chair 7-9 March 2011, Malmรถ

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Contents: The Baltic Sea Regional cooperation through HELCOM Proven preparedness in the Baltic BRISK/BRISK RU risk BRISK/BRISK-RU i k assessmentt

Main concerns for the Baltic Sea • Eutrophication E t hi ti • Pollution by hazardous substances • Maritime activities • Loss of biological diversity

Maritime traffic

Amount of oil turnover in the largest Baltic oil terminals 300,0 Millio on tonnes

• 2000 ships at any given moment • In 2009, vessels entered or left l ft th the B Baltic lti S Sea via i Skaw 62,743 times increase by 20% since 2006 • 21% of those ships were tankers • Also heavy ship traffic through a Kiel Canal – 30 314 ships 30,314 • The strongest growth in shipment p of oil - from the Gulf of Finland

250,0 200,0 150,0

203,5 137,7 108,1 122,8

245,3 251,4 221,2 233,7

162,4 170,3

100 0 100,0 50,0 0,0 1997 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Shipping accidents In 2009: • 105 shipping hi i accidents • Groundings g (36%) ( ) and collissions (32%) are the most common • Human factor is the main cause of accidents • 5 accidents resulted in oil spills p

HELCOM • Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) International cooperation since 1974 (new Convention signed in 1992) • Main task: to protect th marine the i environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution • 10 Contracting Parties ((9 Baltic Sea Coastal States and the EU) • Secretariat located in Helsinki, Finland

Proven preparedness to respond to pollution incidents in the Baltic •

HELCOM Response Group co-ordinates the work

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A number of HELCOM Recommendations covering:

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response to spills of oil or hazardous substances at sea, from offshore ff h units it and d oilil terminals t i l

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requirements on emergency and response capacity

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airborne a bo e su surveillance e a ce

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restricted use of dispersants

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development and use of drift forecasting systems

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HELCOM Response Manual (Vol. I Oil + Vol. II Hazardous Substances)

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Reporting p g procedures p

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Requesting and providing assistance

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Command structure and communication during operation

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Oil sampling

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Co-operation on aerial surveillance

Existing emergency and response capacity • A high number of emergency and sea-going response vessels, i l di 3 chartered including h t d by b European Maritime Safety Agency • New vessels to be built in coming years • Satellite and aerial surveillance • Oil drft forecasting tools (HELCOM Seatrack Web)

Aerial surveillance in the Baltic • Co-ordinated regular surveillance activties in the whole Baltic • Efficiency - development and improvement of the existing remote sensing systems • Satellite surveillance in co-operation with EMSA

• CEPCO and

Super CEPCO Flights • Annual reports t HELCOM for to f evaluation

Regular g exercises • National and bilateral operational exercises involving response units • International operational exercises with participation of all Baltic Sea States (BALEX DELTA) – – – – – – – – – –

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Denmark: 7 countries, 11 ships, 2 aircraft Latvia: 6 countries, 18 ships, 2 aircraft Finland: 5 countries, 16 ships Germany: 6 countries, 11 ships, 1 aircraft Sweden: 7 countries, 19 ships, 2 aircraft P Poland: l d 7 countries t i + EMSA, EMSA 23 ships, hi 3 aircraft i ft Estonia: 6 countries + EMSA, 17 ships, 1 helicopter Russia: 6 countries, EMSA, 17 ships, 2 helicopters Latvia: 5 countries + EMSA, 9 ships Klaipeda: 7 countries + EMSA, 8 vessels

• Main objective - every Contracting Party should be able bl to t command d a major j response operation ti

Major accidental oil pollution • 1990 ”Volgoneft” 700-800 t. of waste oil – 5 countries; more than 20 ships – nearly all oil recovered at sea

• 2001 “Baltic Baltic Carrier Carrier” 2700 t. t of oil – 3 countries – around 50% of oil recovered from the water

• 2003 “Fu Shan Hai” 1200 t. of fuel oil – 3 countries ti – around 1100 tonnes of oil recovered at sea

HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan • Ad Adopted t d on 15 November N b 2007 in Krakow, Poland • Regional programme of measures aimed at obtaining a healthy Baltic S Sea, iincluding l di in i the th response field e.g.: - 2010 Mutual Plan for Places of Refuge – approach beyond national borders - Strengthened regional cooperation on shoreline and oiled wildlife response

BSAP - Strenthening of sub-regional co-operation ti in i response field fi ld •

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C Contracting i Parties i agreed d are to: 1.

assess the risk of oil and chemical pollution and

2 2.

review i emergency and d response resources on sub-regional b i l basis in order to ensure sufficient resources to effectively respond to ”medium size” pollution or to control a large scale pollution ll ti off the th sea

Launch of the BRISK and BRISK–RU projects - BRISK under d the th EU’s EU’ Baltic B lti Sea S Region R i Programme P 2007-2013 2007 2013 (EUR 2.5 mil. allocated from the European Regional Development Fund) - BRISK-RU financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers - Implementation under umbrella of HELCOM Response Group

Part-financed by EU (European Regional Development Fund)

BRISK/BRISK-RU activities 2009-2012 • First overall risk assessment of pollution caused by shipping accidents covering the whole Baltic Sea area based on a common methodology – Recognizes the areas with highest risk for oil spills and environmental damage • Identification of missing response resources needed to effectively tackle major spills of oil and hazardous substances • Preparation of pre-investment plans on how the countries can j i l improve jointly i preparedness d – A joint pool of vessels and equipment for each sub-region – Countries can share the investment burden in a cost costeffective way • Development of agreements between neighboring countries f jjoint for i t response operations ti

Risk of accidents in the Baltic Sea area Collisions on route (red) and •

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Route net based on AIS data for 12 months (2008/2009, average winter conditions) A variety off measures, such as VTS, routing measures, GOFREP etc. taken into account 44 groundings and 4 collisions with ships of 300 g gross tonnage g and above per year expected A number of fires and explosions (7 events per year) are expected The risk of foundering and hard weather damage events low

in intersections (blue) Groundings (yellow)

Risk of collisions in the Baltic Sea Collisions on route (red) and in intersections ((blue))

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The expected number of grounding accidents ten times higher than the number of shipship hi collisions lli i

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However, a collision is about on average 100 times as g in terms dangerous of spill risk as a grounding

Risk of spills in the Baltic Sea • Collisions and groundings g g byy far the most important spill source • An average yearly spill of roughly 1,200 tonnes of oil (85 %) and hazardous substances (15 %) is expected • Illegal spills – 500 tonnes of oil per year

Spills due to collisions on route (red) and in intersections ((blue), ), due to groundings (yellow)

Conclusions • Cooperation on response to pollution from ships in the Baltic Sea well established • Past shipping pp g accidents in the Baltic Sea proved that the regional procedures in place are functioning • Th The BRISK/BRISK BRISK/BRISK-RU RU risk i k assessmentt will ill provide the basis for the decision on the needed investments in response resources • The final results of the risk assessment will be presented on 18/20 May in Gdansk, P l d (European Poland (E Maritime M iti Day) D )

Thank you!

For more information please contact: Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) Katajanokanlaituri 6 B FI-00160 Helsinki Finland

www.helcom.fi