OIL SPILL

The project OIL SPILL helped public authorities, NGOs and voluntary organisations improve oil spill response and make it faster, better coordinated, and more efficient.

Project summary

Oil spill response in coastal areas needs more coordination

Combatting oil spills in shallow waters and coastal areas is often complicated. In contrast to the open sea, the division of tasks and responsibilities between competent authorities and other stakeholders such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is unclear near the coast. Most of the work involved in coastal oil spill response is an arduous, long-term operation. A strong capability to respond to oil spills with the help of volunteers is essential to achieving optimum results and minimising environmental harm.

More cooperation between authorities and volunteers

The project OIL SPILL intended to strengthen the oil spill response capability in the Baltic Sea region at the levels of key responsible ministries, operative competent authorities, key NGOs, relevant universities and the petrochemical industry. To address the challenge, the project enhanced cooperation structures, procedures, and skills between and within the relevant stakeholders. Together with universities, the partners identified procedures across borders that needed to be aligned, carried out trainings, and clarified key legal issues of cooperation in oil spills response schemes.

Budgets

OIL SPILL
in numbers

2.05

Million

Total
1.60

Million

Erdf
0.00

Million

Eni + Russia
0.00

Million

Norway

Achievements

Mapping provides an overview and enables recommendations

The OIL SPILL project helped strengthen cooperation between competent authorities, NGOs, and volunteers in tackling oil spills in shallow and coastal waters of the Baltic Sea. As the project intended to identify and align administrative and other procedures in high-hazard environments, it mapped the operations in the partner countries. The operation practices had relevance to regulatory aspects, legislation; oil spill contingency plan and national contingency plan; response coordination; involvement of non-governmental organizations; rules of financing recovery and restoration; and best practices in financing preventive measures. Based on the mapping exercise, the project provided recommendations on what needs to be done to make the oil spill response faster and more efficient.

Oil spill response gets faster and more efficient

In addition, the involved public authorities had the possibility to actually improve their oil spill response operational practices. It was done thanks to the cross-border exchange of information and training. Besides, the project targeted NGOs and volunteers (e.g. the ones specialising in civil protection, fire and rescue services (voluntary firefighting brigades)) that improved their oil spill response capacity thanks to the provided exercises and closer collaboration with the responsible authorities. In training, the project used simulators in oil spill response. As an example, one of the largest oil spill response exercises was in Vellamo (Turku, Finland). SW Finland Emergency Services organised training where the exercise combined the activities of OIL SPILL, Host Nation Support, and SAAME, the annual OSR exercise at the Finnish Archipelago Sea. The exercise included rescue activities carried out by the responsible authorities and volunteers during a large-scale spill.

Outputs

Operational OIL SPILL response procedures in case of shallow waters and coastal areas

The report provides a comprehensive overview of what is urgently needed to improve in oil spill response. The report covers Finland, Estonia, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, and Latvia. The overview provides the possibility for other countries to get inspired by best practices. The report includes such aspects as regulatory issues; contingency plans; response coordination; and involvement of NGOs. Besides, the report contains recommendations on how to develop and harmonize operational procedures in the Baltic Sea region, based on examples of the partner countries.

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Live and tabletop exercises

The exercises aim to improve oil spill response work and support cooperation between public authorities and NGOs/volunteers (e.g. voluntary fire brigades) in high-hazard environments. The exercises have been tested and provided the relevant stakeholders with opportunities to use simulators in oil spill response. The list entails a series of online exercises and training events such as workshops, seminars, and webinars. The exercise package is diverse and contains e.g. preparedness exercises, or exercises for large-scale joint training, training using a simulator in oil spill response, and other types and formats. The information about the exercises is available in different languages.

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