1Bulgarian Maritime Administration

THE TWINNING LIGHT PROJECT BG2006/IB/TR/02/UE/TWL

OF THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA

CAPACITY BUILDING FOR ENCHANCED CONTROL AND PREVENTION OF MARINE POLLUTION GENERATED BY SHIPS IN THE

BLACK SEA

Possibilities and challenges in Bulgarian HNS spill response

Preliminary observations under project activities 3 and 4

Seminar in Sofia June 29th, 2009Kari Lampela and Jorma Rytkönen

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Outline The tasks Risks and advantages Present organization and practices Observed difficulties, bottlenecks Experiences from northern part of Europe Draft recommendations

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Tasks A3: Review of the Bulgarian legislative and

administrative framework, risk assessment of HNS-pollution and development of a Contingency Plan for HNS spills, comprising an updated oil-spill Contingency

A4: Assessment of the organisational and technical capabilities of BMA’s Regional Directorates in Varna and Burgas to deal with HNS-spills and development of a pre-feasibility study, cost estimates and technical specifications, as well as manuals and training programs, where necessary

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Risks and advantages- Increasing oil transport and vessel size due to new

Bosporus strait passing oil pipeline from Burgas- Vulnerable and environmentally sensitive coastline- Possibility to have rough weather conditions+ Open fairways+ The main oil transport routes are at least now far from Bulgarian coastline+ Oil drift seldom towards Bulgarian coastline

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Present organization and practices Are based on national legislation National and regional contingency plans,

National contingency plan for the whole Bulgarian part of the Black Sea (2001)

Two regional plans, Varna area and Burgas area Black Sea Contingency Plan Conventions, declarations, protocols and plans of

the Black Sea Commission IMO regulations Assistance of EMSA

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Present organization and practices, cont. General comments: The organization, legislation and the national

contingency plan are very complete and clear. To make the Regional Contingency Plans more

simple, perhaps such chapters, which are overlapping with the corresponding chapters in the Black Sea or/and National Contingency Plans could be omitted.

The regional plan for the southern area, Burgas area, should be updated.

There is very little written about other HNS-spills than oil.

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Present organization and practices, cont. Some specific comments of the RegionalContingency Plan The decision to request international assistance is

in rather high level, by the Council of Ministers. The use of dispersant should perhaps be rewritten. Following issues are not dealt in the plans:

Escort towing Emergency towing Places of refuge

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Observed difficulties, bottlenecks More intensive regional cooperation with neigboring

countries, Romania and Turkey is needed. The responsbilities in open sea response are clear, but in

practice mainly due to lack of funding, response operations are not always carried out in the best possible way and without delay.

There is an obvious lack of sea going response vessels and open sea booms in both areas.

There is need to update the oil spill spreding model, it should be based on real time oceanographic model.

Reception facilities for chemicals are needed. There is need for more training to the response personnel.

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Experiences from northern part of Europe

Multipurpose vesselsIn Baltic and North Sea States most oil spill response vessels are multipurpose vessels together with different authorities, which operate at sea (Coast Guard, Navy, Harbour Police, Maritime Administration, etc.) or also with private companies (salvage and oil companies, etc.)

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Chemical spillshj

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Much more compicated thanoil spills. Chemical spills canseldom be collected like oil.Main functions in case of chemical spill are: Save the crew Save propety Balans the situation Protect the responders

and the response vessel

Experiences from northern part of Europe

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Chemical spills, cont.

One of the first new vessels build by GL chemical response vessel rules, Neuwerk from Germany

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There only rules for chemical response vessel are from Germanischer Lloyd.

Only few vessels in the world are build according those rules, mainly in Germany.

If the vessel is totally built according the rules and have certificate, the price vessel is about 1,5 times more than the price of an ordinary oil spill response vessel

Experiences from northern part of Europe

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Experiences from northern part of EuropeFinanzingOne possibility is to built an Oil Pollution Compensating Fund similar to that in Finland: A special law was required A duty of EUR 0,50 is levied into to the FOPC Fund for

each full ton of oil imported to or transported through Finland.

Compensation can be paid to the party suffering oil pollution damage to the oil response authorities and other parties

taking part in combating and reinstatement of the environment

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Finanzing, cont.Compensation can be paid, cont. to the local rescue service in accordance with

the approved contingency plan for costs arising from buying of combating

equipment costs arising from the maintenance of

combating capacity to the state for costs arising from the buying of

combating equipment for oil spills from ships and maintenance of combating capacity of ship-source spills

for some other purposes which benefit oil response

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Draft recommendations

There is a need to examine possibilities to have joint multipurpose oil (chemical) spill response/service vessels with such national organization, administration or private company, which is already operating at sea.

Closer cooperation with neigboring countries, Romania and Turkey is needed.

In order to succesfully collect oil and protect shoreline, more robust, open sea booms are needed to both Varna and Burgas areas.

There is need to build a training program for responders.

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Draft recommendations, cont.

There is need to strengthen the oil spill response capacity especially in the Burgas area due to the planned new oil pipeline.

General policy how to determine the places of refuge when vessel is in distress should be developed.

A common oil drift model should be developed for the whole Black Sea in cooperation between Black Sea States and Black Sea Commission.

Possibilities to establish a special oil spill compensating fund should be examined.

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More information and contacts

Bulgarian Maritime Administration

Mr. Markku Mylly, Director GeneralFinnish Maritime AdministrationTel: +358 400 568 792E-mail: markku.mylly@fma.fi, www.fma.fi

Mr. Jorma Rytkönen, Research DirectorKymenlaakso University of Applied SciencesTel: +358 44 702 8516E-mail: jorma.rytkonen@kyamk.fi, www.kyamk.fi

Mr. Kari Lampela, Senior EngineerFinnish Environment InstituteTel: +358 40 580 2155E-mail: kari.lampela@environment.fi, www.environment.fi/syke

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Thank you for attention!Questions?

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