Bulgarian Maritime Administration

1. THE TWINNING LIGHT PROJECT BG2006/IB/TR/02/UE/TWLOF 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, 2009 Kari Lampela and Jorma Rytkönen Bulgarian MaritimeAdministration

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

3. 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 Bulgarian MaritimeAdministration

4. 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 Bulgarian Maritime Administration

5. 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 Bulgarian Maritime Administration

6. 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. Bulgarian Maritime Administration

7. Present organization and practices, cont. Some specific comments of the Regional Contingency 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 Bulgarian Maritime Administration

8. 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. Bulgarian MaritimeAdministration

9. Experiences from northern part of Europe Multipurpose vessels In 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.) Bulgarian MaritimeAdministration

10. Experiences from northern part of Europe Chemical spills Muchmorecompicatedthan oilspills. Chemicalspillscan seldombecollectedlikeoil. Main functions in case of chemicalspillare: • Save the crew • Savepropety • Balans the situation • Protect the responders and the responsevessel hj Bulgarian MaritimeAdministration

11. Experiences from northern part of Europe Chemical spills, cont. • Thereonlyrules for chemicalresponsevesselarefromGermanischer Lloyd. • Onlyfewvessels in the worldarebuildaccordingthoserules, mainly in Germany. • If the vessel is totallybuiltaccording the rules and havecertificate, the pricevessel is about 1,5 timesmorethan the price of an ordinaryoilspillresponsevessel One of the first new vessels build by GL chemical response vessel rules, Neuwerk from Germany Bulgarian MaritimeAdministration

12. Experiences from northern part of Europe Finanzing One 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 Bulgarian MaritimeAdministration

13. 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 Bulgarian MaritimeAdministration

14. 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. Bulgarian MaritimeAdministration

15. 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. Bulgarian MaritimeAdministration

16. More information and contacts Mr. Markku Mylly, Director General FinnishMaritimeAdministration Tel: +358 400 568 792 E-mail: markku.mylly@fma.fi, www.fma.fi Mr. Jorma Rytkönen, ResearchDirector Kymenlaakso University of Applied Sciences Tel: +358 44 702 8516 E-mail: jorma.rytkonen@kyamk.fi, www.kyamk.fi Mr. Kari Lampela, Senior Engineer FinnishEnvironment Institute Tel: +358 40 580 2155 E-mail: kari.lampela@environment.fi, www.environment.fi/syke Bulgarian MaritimeAdministration

17. Thank you for attention!Questions? Bulgarian MaritimeAdministration