Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Popular Power Ministry for the University Education Maritime University of the Caribbean C.U.

: English VII

tr

Professor: Lilimar Lunar

Cadets: Castillo P. Jos G. 19.555.121 Rojas B. Juan C. 20.329.119 Catia La mar. November, 14th 2012

Brackground and relevant information What is an Oil Spill ? What is prevention and reaction to Oil Spills? Legal frame about Oil Pollution

Equipment for reaction of oil spills

Procedures: Bunkering

Big boom of the maritime industry at the end of XIX century and the beginning of the XX century

Start of oil exploration around the world

The intergovernmental maritime consultative organization was created in March, 6 1948 known as I.M.O. nowadays

Introduction of the heat engine as source of mechanical work for ship propulsion

The years past and a sequence of maritime incidents happened where the MS Gluckauf, MS Titanic are ones of the most knowns

In that time big companies and governments were not aware of the high damages that oil can cause to the sea

IMO objectives and functions

The big shipping companies put the safety and sea in a second place

it was not until the incident of Torrey Canyon in 1967 when the maritime industry and the governments started to care about seas.

In 1973 the I.M.O. prepared a convention about the pollution of the seas (MARPOL)

MARPOL is the convention that rules all the subjects and topics about the oil spills

The MARPOL convention entered into force October, 2th 1983.

We can define an oil spill as any, accidental or not, discharge, evacuation, escape, leak, overfill, emission or emptying of oil or derivatives to the ocean or coastal waters which put on risk the life of the marine environment, the human life or hinder the good use of the seas.

it is the action of preparing all the necessary matters (operations and procedures) and elements to avoid or affront a risk, damage or hard situation. So the prevention is be prepared for everything at any moment, it is achieved through the preparation of well planned procedures, good communication, training, and no less important having good equipments. The marine oil spills are a situation that put on risk the marine environment and the human life.

Prevention is constituted by three main elements: Planning: all ships must have a plan in case of oil spill.

Training: the crew must be trained on oil spill prevention and in all the procedures concerned to the bilge of water used to clean the cargo tanks, oil tanks and oil spills because the happening of incidents. Drills are an excellent practice.
Equipment: the ship must have the equipment necessary for an efficient response in case of oil spill, the crew, in case of oil spill, combined with the plans and equipment, should response fast and successfully. The equip only helps with little oil spills, bigger spills like the Torrey Canyons obviously is treated by companies on response of oil spills. A company of this is Oil Spills Response.

It is the fast, efficient and well planned response to hard situations or risks, focused on the reduction of the issue seriousness and its affectation to the human life or environment. In the term are involved all the actions to reduce or eliminate the focus of risk or danger using equipment, human power and technical support. So the reaction of marine oil spills are all those operations that tries to remove as fast as possible the oil from the sea water where the spill happened. In order to reduce the damage for the marine environment.

The convention empowered to rule all the matters concerned to oil pollution is the International Maritime Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships as know as MARPOL. The first annex of the MARPOL is about Oil Pollution, therein are 39 rules, 7chapters and 3 appendixes.

Annex I contains requirements for: Surveys and inspections. International Oil Pollution Prevention Certificates. Discharges of oil or oily water mixtures. Segregated or dedicated clean ballast. Filtering and separating equipment. Crude oil washing. Oil record books. Retention of oil in slop tanks. Sludge tanks. Pumping. Restrictions on carryin. Water ballast in fuel tanks. Restrictions on carrying oil in forepeak tanks. Piping and discharge arrangements. Shipboard oil pollution emergency plans.

It is a floating device used to contain oil on a body of water. Once the boom has been inflated, it is towed downwind of the oil spill and formed into a U-shape; under the influence of wind, the oil becomes trapped within the boom. Oil boom has a skirt made of plastic which prevents oil spills from going under the boom.

It is a device that collects and removes oil from a water surface (So it is a recovery equipment), Skimming equipment travels into the boom enclosure, the drums rotate and because of this rotation the oil adheres to the surface of the drums, separating from the water, then the oil is pumped into containers. There are two main designs: oil absorbent rope and oil absorbent drums.

They are devices to carry oil spills, are made of plastic or PVC. There are three main kinds: floating storage bag, Easytank and Autotank