Asia/Pacific News
MPA Tests New Oil Spill Clean Up Procedure
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) Friday announced that it has participated in a multi-agency joint oil and chemical spill exercise in order to test new spill procedures - specifically, the use of a new system known as NeatSweep for spill containment.
The spill exercise, code-named JOSE 2016, is noted to have been organised by MPA as part of the closing programme for SIBCON 2016, and saw the participation of over 250 personnel from 28 agencies, with close to 80 delegates from the conference present to observe.
"The need to protect and minimise impacts of oil spills in our waters together with our partner agencies and stakeholders is an important component of our holistic safety programme. Multi-agency efforts to conduct regular joint oil spill exercises will be on-going to test and improve our spill response strategies and technologies for use in different scenarios," said Andrew Tan, MPA's CEO.
"Today, we are happy to have ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte Ltd support the Joint Oil Spill Exercise. We are pleased that together, we have demonstrated that we have a well-coordinated and competent team ready to take on the challenges."
The table top and seaward exercise scenario, which involved a simulated collision off Raffles Lighthouse between an arriving Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) carrying 110,000 metric tonnes (mt) of Kuwait Crude Oil and a tanker transiting in the west-bound lane of the Singapore Strait.
The scenario is said to have seen the arriving VLCC sustain damages to two cargo oil tanks, resulting in the spill of approximately 10,000 mt of oil and two crew injuries requiring immediate evacuation.
The exercise is noted to offer stakeholders an opportunity to discuss and deliberate operational and policy issues for combating a major oil spill in Singapore.
