INDUSTRY NEWS

INDUSTRY NEWS INDUSTRY NEWS Interspill is controlled by the European Spill industry associations, from Norway, NOSCA, from France, SYCOPOL, and from UK, the UK Spill Association, together with IMO, EMSA, IPIECA, ITOPF, IOPC Funds, Cedre, and Oil Spill Response Ltd and is co-organised by Reed Exhibitions.

For further information visit:

www.interspill.org

INTERSPILL 2022 TO GO AHEAD AT RAI AMSTERDAM 21-23 JUNE 2022

Interspill Limited is delighted to announce that it has contracted with iConex to organise Interspill 2022 at RAI Amsterdam on 21-23 June 2022.

Interspill was supposed to be held in Amsterdam in 2021 but the Management Committee agreed to delay due a year to COVID 19 to June 2022.

iConex is experienced in organising technical exhibitions and events across the globe. Interspill will be managed by its specialist subsidiary, T8C, which organises technical and energy events in the Oil & Gas Industry. It currently organises RECSO EnviroSpill Conference & Exhibition in the Middle East and India Clean Seas Conference.

Now that the contract has been signed and the venue confirmed, the future of this important face to face conference and exhibition is assured. The Management and Conference Committees have met to start planning the detail of the event.

An event website will follow shortly but news will be posted on Interspill.org from next week. the turbulence caused by the COVID 19 pandemic it is great to look forward to Interspill 2020 in Amsterdam.

This will be the first face-to-face major oil and gas industry event to be held and we are aware of our responsibility for this to be a COVID safe event and will run it as an example for others to follow.

We are delighted to contract with iConex for this and the following two editions of Interspill. This event will have a significant role shaping the industry approach to spill response in the energy transition and will include marine litter and managing the impact shipping has on our marine environment.’ The scope of the event reflects the strength and breadth of the organising Committees, which included the European Spill industry trade organisations, the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), IPIECA, the global oil and gas industry association for environmental and social issues and Oil Spill Response Ltd., with support from the International Maritime Organization (IMO), International Oil Pollution Convention Funds (IOPC), the International Tanker Owners Federation (ITOPF) and France’s Centre of Documentation, Research and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution (CEDRE).

OCEAN ORBIT IS ITOPF ANNUAL REVIEW OF ITS ACTIVITIES

For those with an interest in maritime activities Ocean Orbit is a very interesting read. Whilst ITOPF is funded by the oil tanker owners, their expertise in handling incidents and the strength of their environmental team means that they are well respected. Ocean Orbit reports that they are also requested by IMO, impacted nations and P&I clubs to advise affected parties in the steps they can take to protect the environment from the effects of an oil spill.

ITOPF have attended and advised on 18 new incidents between March and December 2020, including the nickel mine storage tank spill in Russia, the power barge incident in the Philippines and a potential spill from an FSO off Venezuela and the fire and risk of a fuel spillage on the MV New Diamond off Sri Lanka. The MV Wakashio spill was a major deployment Continued ... 9

and ITOPF are currently supporting Israel on the effect of the tar spreading on their Mediterranean shores, the cutting up of the grounded car carrier Golden Ray, to South Africa to advise on clean-up of a plastic nurdle spill.

ITOPF advised on the MV New Diamond incident. This was an anxious fortnight for all in the Indian Ocean. An explosion followed by an intense fire in the engine room resulted in the loss of some fuel to the sea but at one point looked likely to overcome the whole vessel with the significant consequence of the loss of the 270,000 tons of crude oil it carried. Swift action by the Sri Lankan and Indian Navy and the bravery of the crew saved the casualty which was eventually towed to Khor Fakkan in the UAE where the load was to be transferred to another tanker and will be delivered to Paradip, India.

Since November 2020 there have been a series of incidents where significant numbers of containers have been lost from large container ships caught at sea in heavy weather.

Most significant was the loss of 1816 containers from One Apus on 30 November. On 31 December the MV Ever Liberal lost 36 containers about 20 miles off Kyushu, Japan. In mid January the 13,092 teu Maersk Essen, en route from China to Los Angeles, lost approximately 750 containers during heavy seas. Israeli carrier ZIM reportedly lost 76 containers in early February from the chartered ship E.R.

https://www.itopf.org/fileadmin/data/Documents/Company_Lit/Ocean_Orbit_2021_lo_ password_protected.pdf

CONTINUING CONTAINER LOSSES AT SEA MAY RESULT IN REDUCTION IN LOADING LIMITS

Tianping. The incident also occurred in the Pacific as the container ship was making its way from South Korea to North America. This was followed the same week by MSC Aries that lost 41 containers in the Pacific and then in mid February, the Maersk Eindhoven, was near Japan sailing from China to Los Angeles when the vessel’s engine stopped in heavy seas causing the ship to be unable to manoeuvre and it therefore experienced a severe roll during which it lost 260 containers overboard. Propulsion was restored and the vessel diverted to the nearest Asian port. Very large container ships seem more vulnerable to the sea state than smaller vessels. Container ships are rolling 30 – 40 degrees imposing significant pitching and rolling loads which exert powerful forces that are breaking snap lashing and the locks on high container stacks causing their loss overboard or collapse of whole stacks of containers.

There is the myth existing that containers that fall overboard sink to the sea bed. Recently up to 100 containers were found drifting north east of Honolulu in a partly submerged state. They present a serious hazard to shipping as well as being an environmental hazard.

At present it seems the sea is being treated as a dustbin to over ambitious design that may hopefully result in reduced loadings until a better solution is found to keep container onboard these vessels.

It also poses the question of what happens to these containers. Now over 3000 in the Pacific alone!

Of those lost we know that around 7% were carrying dangerous cargos.