BfR-Wissenschaft
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14 Current and intended status for contracting of product stocks and technical
equipment in Europe
Walter Nordhausen
European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), Lisbon, Portugal
The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) is one of the EU's decentralized agencies.
Based in Lisbon, the Agency provides technical assistance and support to the European
Commission and Member States in the development and implementation of ELI legislation on
maritime safety, pollution by ships and maritime security. It has also been given operational
tasks in the field of oil pollution response, vessel monitoring and in long range identification
and tracking of vessels.
A major political impetus to the setting up of EMSA in 2003 was the fallout from the Erika
(1999) and the Prestige (2002) accidents and their resulting oil spills. These incidents result
ed in huge environmental and economic damage to the coastlines of Spain and France. They
also acted as a reminder to decision-makers that Europe needed to invest in better prepara
tion for a large-scale oil spill, i.e. above-and-beyond the resources available at individual
Member State level.
Following the Macondo well / Deepwater Horizon incident in 2010, the European Commis
sion undertook an evaluation of the preparedness in Europe to respond to a pollution incident
from an offshore oil installation. Subsequently and based on the findings, EMSA’s Founding
Regulation (Ell No. 100/2013) was revised adding the response to marine pollution from oil
and gas installations to the Agency’s tasks. An Action Plan identifying the status in the Euro
pean Union with regard to offshore installation and proposed activities to implement the re
vised regulation was adopted by EMSA’s Administrative Board in November 2013. In 2014
the Agency started implementing the Action Plan by enlarging the ‘toolbox’ to deal with oil
spills originating from offshore installations.
More specifically, the Agency began the relocation of response arrangements for mechanical
recovery of oil (oil spill recovery vessels including sweeping arms, booms, skimmers, etc.) to
areas of higher risk of oil spill, i.e. the Adriatic Sea, the Northern North Sea, and the Canary
Islands. In addition, oil pollution response vessels with Class Notation for recovery of oil with
a Flash Point < 60“were selected at times of new contracts or upgraded.
In parallel, the Agency received approval from the Administrative Board to also develop an
Equipment Assistance Service. This new service will include specialized oil pollution re
sponse equipment stored at locations in pre-identified regions, which can be used on vessels
of opportunity. These systems are fully self-sufficient and can be transported containerized to
any locations where needed.
In order to offer more response options in addition to mechanical oil recovery at sea, strate
gically located pollution response vessels have been, or are being, upgraded to add the ca
pacity for seaborne dispersant spraying operations. This includes the stockpiling of limited
quantities of dispersants. However, currently no equipment for aerial dispersant spraying are
planned to be purchased or contracted.
Policies regarding dispersant use reside with the coastal states. This often includes an ap
proval process including specific testing procedures for effectiveness and toxicity. EMSA has
not established and is not intending to establish an approval process for dispersants. Cur
rently, six countries have test procedures in place (France, United Kingdom, Norway, Spain,
Italy, Greece). UK, France and Norway have the most experience in this field. In addition,
some countries, which have not established their own test procedures, allow the use of dis-
