On the August 26th 2009, two major events for the human lives search and rescue activity on the sea, as well as for the response and cooperation in cases of marine oil pollution at sea took place, i.e. the National SAR Simulation exercise (human lives search and rescue) and the second Regional Operational Simulation exercise for response to marine oil pollution at the Black Sea – under the designation of RODELTA 2009.
The simulation exercise took place on the sea, ashore and in the air, in the Midia Harbour area, being hosted by the Rompetrol Group, through Rompetrol Rafinare Constanţa and Midia Marine Terminal.
The simulation exercise started with the simulation of a collision between two ships: at local hour 11.00, oil tanker UTOPIA, under Panama pavilion, which was under unloading at the SPM operational buoy belonging to Midia Marine Terminal, member of the Rompetrol Group, was subject to a collision with the Ovidius cargo ship, under Cambodia pavilion, which completely lost its maneuver capacity due to certain steering equipment problems.
Midia Marine Terminal informed the Maritime Coordination Centre within the Romanian Naval Authority that crude oil was leaking from a cargo bunker from the larboard deck of the oil tanker UTOPIA and each cargo compartment could contain min. 10500 t of crude oil; the stain visible from the very beginning was approx. 800 sqm of oil.
According to Government Decision 893/2006, if crude oil leakages are estimated to exceed 700 t, the National Plan for response and cooperation in the case of marine oil pollution is activated.
The Utopia tanker was loaded with 150,000 t of light Siberia crude oil. Following the collision approx. 5,000 t of crude oil were spilled into the Black Sea.
In the case of such accidents, Midia Marine Terminal - Rompetrol would interrupt operations for one month and would provide equipment and materials to eliminate the accident effects and fight pollution, the losses amounting to an overall approximate value of $ 2 050 000.
In the case of an accident of such size, the operations of the hotel owners and economic agents in Mamaia, the fishing activity, and the marine trading operations would be severely affected.
If circumstances were actual, the period within which the affected economic agents, institutions and organizations can submit compensation applications is 3 years. Within the Rodelta simulation exercise, the damages and compensation assessment group estimated an overall value of the compensation requests of EUR 3 600 000, of which offshore compensations - EUR 1 600 000 and onshore compensations EUR 2 000 000.
In actual cases, the overall pollution response cost is covered according to the International Convention on civil liability for oil pollution damages, 1992 (CLC, 1992), according to the “polluter pays” principle.
According to the estimates, within approximately 24 hours from collision, the entire Mamaia resort beach area would be affected by pollution, measures being then taken on the beach according to the intervention plans developed by the Dobrogea Seaside Water Directorate – DADL, within the “Apele Romane” National Administration (Ministry of Environment) and approved by the prefect of the Constanta County.
Access to the affected area was restricted and special personnel safety measures were taken within the response operations.
Considering that the national intervention capacity was exceeded, the decision was made to request international assistance, from the countries neighbouring the Black Sea and from the European Maritime Safety Agency - EMSA. To this end, the Prime Minister’s approval was required. The technical-economic documentation for cooperation with the neighbouring countries and with the international organizations was prepared (customs and harbour duties exemption).
In order to inform the population, data on this incident was posted at www.UTOPIA.ro and a forum was opened to answer all incident-related questions.
In the case of the UTOPIA incident, the offshore intervention operations would have ended when most of the spilled product had reached shore, and the floating crude oil had become highly heavy-bodied (more than 15,000 CSt at 20C), the available equipment thus becoming inefficient.
The onshore response operations represented the final part of the simulation exercise. They were carried out on the entire length of the Mamaia Resort beach and in Pescărie (Fishing Area), the most difficult operations being those in the rocky areas bordered by articulated concrete blocks.
The quantities of crude oil mixed with water taken from the sea were of approximately 8,000 t, and, after collection, they were to be handed over to Ecomaster for processing and recycling.
All institutions involved in the offshore response operations received orders for intervention termination. The ships and equipment used were decontaminated and stored in the preset locations.
The ship Marina 1 belonging to DADL and the Turkish Coastguard ship remained in the affected area for monitoring purposes.
The onshore operations continued, apart from the Romanian institutions and companies (MMT - Rompetrol, BRANIC, Envirotech, DADL), those in Georgia and Turkey, which answered to the regional assistance request, according to the Black Sea Contingency Plan, also contributed their share of forces and equipment.
The exercise of the largest pollution simulation ever carried out at the Black Sea was efficiently managed by the Operative Commandment for Marine De-pollution.
250 specialists from Romania and the countries neighbouring the Black Sea took part in the Rodelta simulation exercise.
The Regional Operational Simulation exercise for response to marine oil pollution at the Black Sea successfully achieved its main goal of testing the level of cooperation both between the Romanian institutions and companies, and between those neighbouring the Black Sea.
The Romanian Naval Authority – the specialized technical body of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure was the Romanian organizer, alongside with the other structures involved in the Rodelta 2009 simulation exercise: the Ministry of Administration and Home Affairs through its local structures – Dobrogea Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, County Gendarmes Inspectorate, County Border Police Inspectorate, Constanta County Police Inspectorate; Ministry of National Defence; Ministry of Environment, International Maritime Organization, European Commission, Black Sea Commission, European Maritime Safety Agency, National Company Crucea Rosie Romania, other governmental organizations and economic agents.
The General Coordinator of the simulation exercise was Constanta County Prefect having as subordinate the Maritime Operations Division, led by ANR and the Onshore Operations Division, led by DADL.
