An Assessment of the Increasing Risk of Marine Oil Spills and the Existing Preparedness Capabilities in the Southeast Asian Region

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (1) ◽  
pp. 856-868
Author(s):  
Geeva Varghese

ABSTRACT A rapidly growing economy has pushed the energy demands and has significantly increased the exploration and production activities as well as the shipping traffic over recent years in the Southeast Asian Region. Since the introduction of offshore exploration and production in the 1960's, Southeast Asia has gone through a remarkable transition from an onshore to an offshore focused region with more than 80% of oil production coming from offshore fields in 2011. Also the region has recently moved into deepwater exploration and production activities which now makes up more than 10% of the offshore production. With the rising production volumes, the transport of oil products has continuously increased both in volume and in number of ships used. This trend is expected to grow further with the investment in new refinery capacity of several Southeast Asian countries. All these factors have significantly contributed to the increased risk of marine spill incidents in the region. An increased risk of oil spills necessitates an increase in the capability to respond and manage major oil spill incidents. Even though the Southeast Asian region has made some notable progress over the past few decades in terms of oil spill preparedness and response, the region's capabilities are arguably less mature compared to other parts of the world. Most of the countries in the region have been successful in establishing the elements of preparedness advocated by the OPRC (International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness Response and Cooperation) convention. But recent spill incidents and preparedness work in the region have revealed a need for greater collaboration between the government and industry stakeholders from oil, shipping and port industries, planning and preparing of major trans-boundary oil spill incidents and alignment of oil spill preparedness and response system of a country from the national to provincial level. This paper examines the increasing risks of oil spills from the growing vessel traffic and exploration and production activities in Southeast Asia against the current level of preparedness in the region. In doing so, the author will share the experience gained from working on various oil spill response planning and preparedness projects with the Governments and industry in the region with lessons learned, current developments and recommendation for improvements.

1999 ◽  
Vol 1999 (1) ◽  
pp. 257-265
Author(s):  
Edward J. Maillett ◽  
Gary A. Yoshioka

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to estimate the cumulative cost incurred by private industry as a result of the various regulations enacted under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) and to compare these costs against the estimated effectiveness of the program in terms of avoided future oil spills. The authors reviewed Federal Register announcements of federal agency rulemakings to identify estimated costs to industry and to determine if reported costs are one-time occurrences for capital-related expenditures or represent annual estimates for repeated activities. The authors then estimated the total costs of each rulemaking through the year 2015. The costs of regulations implemented under OPA 90 that impact the private sector range from zero to $3.5 billion in discounted dollars. Based on these individual government estimates for each OPA 90 regulation, the authors estimate the discounted cost to industry to comply with all of the OPA 90 requirements to be $12.1 billion, the largest portion of which affects the marine vessel industry. Total benefits of the rulemakings are estimated to exceed 3.6 million barrels of avoided oil spills through the year 2015. Over one-half of this benefit estimate results from the facility response planning requirements for non-transportation-related on-shore facilities and pipelines. The cost effectiveness of regulations implemented under OPA 90 ranges between several hundred dollars to over $26,000 per barrel of avoided oil spill.


2005 ◽  
Vol 2005 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-165
Author(s):  
Carl Jochums ◽  
Glen Watabyashi ◽  
Heather Parker-Hall

ABSTRACT California has initiated a new approach to create an objective standard and regulate best achievable protection (BAP) for sensitive shoreline protection from vessel spills. The Oil Pollution Act (OPA 90) and California's Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act (SB 2040) mandate BAP as the standard for preparedness and response. BAP poses the critical response planning questions: “How much response resources should industry provide?” and “In what timeframes should those resources be deployed?” Prior California regulations intended to achieve BAP by relying on vessels to identify hazards, trajectories, environmental consequences, and response resource plans, produced less than optimal results in many instances. Though effective in theory, this approach resulted in fuzzy consequences and vague arrangements for adequate response. Because it was neither clear what sites would be protected (and what response resources would be required) nor at what time, and because it was consequentially not clear what response resources would be engaged to execute protection, drilling C-plans became obtuse. This in turn fostered “paper tiger” OSROs and resulted in an uneven playing field for business competitors. In Californias new approach, OSPR used many of the original concepts to identify BAP by using the NOAA GNOME oil spill model for generic vessel risk threats for California ports and along the California coast. This paper explains the theory, steps, and details. As a result of this process, BAP has been defined in terms of specific site deployments at specific time intervals and presented in tables in regulation. This new approach provides a number of benefits and solutions to the difficult issues in the former approach, including a standard for BAP.


1973 ◽  
Vol 1973 (1) ◽  
pp. 569-577
Author(s):  
Robert Kaiser ◽  
Donald Jones ◽  
Howard Lamp'l

ABSTRACT This paper presents the “Agnes Story” disaster as related to the largest inland oil spill experienced in the history of the U.S. and actions taken by EPA in coping with the problem. Contrasted to the massive oceanic spill of the TORREY CANYON, other major ship oil pollution disasters, the Santa Barbara and Gulf of Mexico offshore platform oil spills, the oil pollution resulting from the flooding produced by Tropical Storm Agnes required unprecedented actions by many governmental agencies. The inland rivers of the Middle Atlantic area experienced spills of petroleum products ranging from over 3,000,000 gallons of No. 2 fuel oil, gasoline and kerosene from storage tanks in Big Flats / Elmira, N.Y. (just north of the Pennsylvania border) to 6,000,000–8,000,000 gallons of black, highly metallic waste oil and sludge from an oil reclamation plant on the Schuylkill River. The aftermath of this gigantic inland oil spill was oil and gasoline soaked fields, oil coated trees, farm houses, homes, factories, an airport, and hundreds of stranded oil puddles, ponds and lagoons as the rivers receded to normal levels. The record setting flood stage along several miles of both the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Rivers and their tributaries was recorded vividly ashore on trees and buildings as if by a black grease pencil, drawing attention to the most widespread property damage suffered from the most devastating storm in recorded U.S. history. Cleanup of the spilled oil in the midst of other rescue and restorative actions by Federal, State and Municipal agencies was fraught with emergency response problems including: identification of major impact points, availability of resources for response actions, coordination of response actions, activation of cleanup contractors, meeting administrative requirements, and the structure for making command decisions. Along with these requirements were technical decisions to be made concerning methods of physical removal procedures, containment systems, chemical treating agents and, very importantly, protecting and restoring the environment. Major spill effects and significant cleanup operations, problems encountered, and lessons learned are presented so that future responses can be better and more efficiently dealt with in an inland oil spill disaster comparable to the “Agnes Oil Spill”.


1993 ◽  
Vol 1993 (1) ◽  
pp. 727-731
Author(s):  
Randall B. Luthi ◽  
Linda B. Burlington ◽  
Eli Reinharz ◽  
Sharon K. Shutler

ABSTRACT The Damage Assessment Regulations Team (DART), under the Office of General Counsel of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has centered its efforts on developing natural resource damage assessment regulations for oil pollution in navigable waters. These procedures will likely lower the costs associated with damage assessments, encourage joint cooperative assessments and simplify most assessments. The DART team of NOAA is developing new regulations for the assessment of damages due to injuries related to oil spills under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. These regulations will involve coordination, restoration, and economic valuation. Various methods are currently being developed to assess damages for injuries to natural resources. The proposed means include: compensation tables for spills under 50,000 gallons, Type A model, expedited damage assessment (EDA) procedures, and comprehensive procedures. They are being developed to provide trustees with a choice for assessing natural resource damages for each oil spill.


2005 ◽  
Vol 2005 (1) ◽  
pp. 439-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlie Henry

ABSTRACT Since the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90), dispersants have been used as part of a combined response to mitigate seven oil spills in United States Gulf of Mexico (GOM) waters. Of the dispersant operations reported, four utilized the Regional Response Team VI pre-approval authority to the Federal On-Scene Coordinator (FOSC) that requires a monitoring plan. The successful integration of dispersant pre-authorization along with a fully funded ready response delivery system maintained by industry contributed to the successful use of dispersants to aid in mitigating spilled oil. A key element to gaining the original pre-approval authority was a functional operational monitoring plan. While each response was considered a successful dispersant operation, each incident provided valuable lessons learned that have been integrated into subsequent contingency planning and modifications to existing pre-authorization requirements in the GOM. This paper provides a chronological review of oil spill responses where dispersants were applied in the GOM since OPA 90.


1997 ◽  
Vol 1997 (1) ◽  
pp. 961-963
Author(s):  
Bobbie Lively-Diebold ◽  
Gregory DeMarco ◽  
David Gilder ◽  
Juliet Fried

ABSTRACT Much attention has recently been focused on the Integrated Contingency Plan (ICP) Guidance, which is designed to promote more effective and consistent emergency response planning at facilities. This poster will explore the possibility of expanding that concept to the realm of oil spill prevention by promoting increased coordination among the various programs that address technical and operational measures aimed at preventing spills associated with the handling, storage, and transport of oil. For operations subject to multiple federal regulations, the potential for consolidation and resulting efficiencies may exist. Improved coordination among prevention programs is likely to reduce the overall risk of systemwide oil spills as well as duplicative and conflicting requirements. Lessons learned from efforts to coordinate on the response side of the equation can be applied to the prevention side to facilitate such coordination.


1997 ◽  
Vol 1997 (1) ◽  
pp. 453-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
CDR Robert A. Van Zandt

ABSTRACT The Coast Guard's oil spill removal organization (OSRO) classification process underwent significant revision in late 1995. The revision was necessary to strengthen the program into a more credible and useful tool for facilitating preparation and review of vessel and facility response plans. The revised process is more closely linked to the response planning criteria that vessel and facility owners and operators are required to meet under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. As a result, the process provides a better indication of an OSRO's capacity and potential to respond to and recover oil spills of various sizes. Data provided by each OSRO are being included in the computer-based national Response Resource Inventory (RRI). The paper describes the important features and limitations of the revised classification process and gives an interpretation of what the new classifications mean to response plan holders and reviewers. It also describes the method by which plan holders can use the computer-based RRI as a tool to conduct their own analysis of an OSRO's capacity to meet their specific planning requirements.


Author(s):  
Emilio D’Ugo ◽  
Milena Bruno ◽  
Arghya Mukherjee ◽  
Dhrubajyoti Chattopadhyay ◽  
Roberto Giuseppetti ◽  
...  

AbstractMicrobiomes of freshwater basins intended for human use remain poorly studied, with very little known about the microbial response to in situ oil spills. Lake Pertusillo is an artificial freshwater reservoir in Basilicata, Italy, and serves as the primary source of drinking water for more than one and a half million people in the region. Notably, it is located in close proximity to one of the largest oil extraction plants in Europe. The lake suffered a major oil spill in 2017, where approximately 400 tons of crude oil spilled into the lake; importantly, the pollution event provided a rare opportunity to study how the lacustrine microbiome responds to petroleum hydrocarbon contamination. Water samples were collected from Lake Pertusillo 10 months prior to and 3 months after the accident. The presence of hydrocarbons was verified and the taxonomic and functional aspects of the lake microbiome were assessed. The analysis revealed specialized successional patterns of lake microbial communities that were potentially capable of degrading complex, recalcitrant hydrocarbons, including aromatic, chloroaromatic, nitroaromatic, and sulfur containing aromatic hydrocarbons. Our findings indicated that changes in the freshwater microbial community were associated with the oil pollution event, where microbial patterns identified in the lacustrine microbiome 3 months after the oil spill were representative of its hydrocarbonoclastic potential and may serve as effective proxies for lacustrine oil pollution.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 146
Author(s):  
Riza Afita Surya ◽  
Rif'atul Fikriya

Waters as rain, rivers, and seas are one the most common feature found upon Southeast Asian region. It has been establishing this region significantly distinctive along with others. Water is such profound thing everywhere, but it helds most importantly in Southeast Asia Maritime region, with its long shorelines in relation to it landmass, and with the enormous expanses of surrounding Island of Southeast Asia and abutting the shores of Mainland Southeast Asia. Waters in form such rain, rivers, and seas undoubtly giving a certain pattern of social and economical circumstance towards society. Java was known as the biggest rice producer until 19th century, especially manufactured among Javanese kingdoms. Rice had been the trademark of exchange in Java that was contributed across the land overtime. Here, wet rice cultivation has been a typical technique engaged in Java and remains until presents. This article discusses the water impact towards rice trade in Java during 14th century.


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