NEWS | Wednesday, 22 October 2008

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Oil recovery response exercise conducted out at sea

The Malta Maritime Authority and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) yesterday conducted an oil recovery response exercise at sea, off Valletta.
The oil recovery response exercise simulated the detection of a 500m by 300m unattached slick of heavy oil off Valletta, which was “reported” by a fishing boat to the Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) at the MMA. The first call was made to the Harbour Master at 5:30am, and the response was initiated through VTS calls for mobilising everyone concerned. In fact, the Malta Maritime Authority’s Control Centre was fully manned by 6am.
Vessels arriving on the scene started deploying booms and skimming equipment for the recovery of the oil slick.
Apart from the M/T Santa Maria and M/T Mistra Bay which are based in Malta, a third vessel, the Aktea OSRV, was deployed from her base in Piraeus, Greece for the exercise.
The vessels form part of EMSA’s network of pollution response vessels stationed in ports around the European coast.
In the case that a member state requests assistance, any of these vessels may be deployed to assist in clean-up and response operations under a standard contract with predetermined fees to be paid to the vessel operators.
Captain Richard Gabriele, the Malta Maritime Authority’s Harbour Master was the chief coordinator of this exercise which was carried out in a joint effort with the Civil Protection Department who had the task as on scene command using their vessel Garibaldi.
Participants included Tankship Management Ltd. Falzon Marine Group, Environmental Protection Engineering (Piraeus), operators of Mistra Bay, Santa Maria and Aktea OSRV respectively, Cassar Ship Repair, Tug Malta, the Armed Forces of Malta and the Police through the deployment of their respective sea craft.
Other entities directly involved in this exercise included the Health Department, the Physical Oceanography Unit of the University of Malta, the Meteorology Office at the Malta International Airport, the Malta Maritime pilots, REMPEC (Regional Marine Pollution Response Centre), the Oil Pollution Response Module and Alpha Briggs and EMSA as observers.
Capt Gabriele expressed his satisfaction at the successful outcome of this exercise: “Although the exercise is a simulated one, conditions are very real and we have to coordinate a complicated operation with the involvement of many other participants. Response has to be timely and coordinated whereby everyone has to abide strictly to the instructions being given. We hope that this will always limit itself to a simulation of an incident however, biding by the successful outcome, in case of a real incident involving oil spills, we are confident that the matter will be addressed with professional and successful results.”
An official from EMSA present throughout the exercise had words of praise for the “excellent coordination and clear communications which helped this exercise run smoothly and effectively, with all units responding in a professional manner. The success of this drill signified a good foundation for closer and more practical cooperation between Malta Maritime Authority and EMSA's Pollution Response.
“This was the first time ever that 3 EMSA vessels flying together the EMSA flag, participated in a pollution response exercise. In fact during such a drill EMSA engaged 3 out of the 5 existing EMSA vessels in the Mediterranean and altogether have deployed state of the art OPR (Oil Pollution Response) equipment that can recover and store over 7,000 cubic meters of oil,” concluded the EMSA’s official.
Oil Recovery Response Exercises are conducted on an annual basis by the MMA and relevant stakeholders to sharpen up the Island’s capabilities to deal with various types of oil pollution.

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