RODELTA 2009 EXERCISE REPORT
MIDIA, CONSTANŢA, 26 AUGUST 2009
1. Exercise planning
In November 2008, during 17th Meeting of the Advisory Group on Environmental Safety Aspects of Shipping, within Black Sea Commission, was established the long-term Plan for the Oil spill response exercises in the Black Sea and Romania was elected as host country for the Second Operational Black Sea Delta Regional Exercise.
Taking into consideration the need of continuously ensuring a better preservation of the marine environment and reducing the effects of major spills by developing a consistent pollution prevention policy and coordinated response process for the management of major spill events, and in order to fulfil its obligations under the international agreements Romania is part of, the Romanian competent national authorities decided the Second Operational Black Sea Delta Regional Exercise to take place in Constanta, during August 2009, under the generic name RODELTA 2009.
Having as main objective the enhancement of the co-operation between the national authorities with responsibilities in coordinating and conducting search and rescue activities in accordance with the “Cooperation plan on unitary intervention, in case of emergency situations, for search and rescue of human life within the littoral area and at sea ”, as well as to test the co-operation under the Protocol on cooperation in combating pollution of the Black Sea by oil and other harmful substances in emergency situations to the 1992 Convention on the protection of the Black Sea against pollution (The Bucharest Convention), the exercise was developed by the relevant Romanian institutions, under the coordination of the Romanian Naval Authority, in close cooperation with the Black Sea Commission, and with the participation of Bulgaria, Georgia, Russian Federation, Turkey and Ukraine.
The regional aspects of exercise were established during Steering Committee Meetings. First meeting was held in Constanta, 12-13 of March 2009, in conjunction with IMO OPRC Level 3 Course, being supported by IMO. The Second Steering Committee Meeting was held in Izmir, Turkey, on 28 of May 2009, in conjunction with Turkish national oil pollution exercise, being supported by Black Sea Commission.
At national level, there were established three Conferences for exercise planning. Every Conference was held to Romanian Naval Authority headquarters, having three days duration, representatives from each ministry participating to these Conferences.
Between these meetings, it was established a correspondence working group for exercise details settings.
On 25th of August were held some preparing activities, like tests communications, exercise simulation on Marine Training Centre TRANSAS simulator and Claims and compensations working group meeting.
There was no workshop organized by Black Sea Commission or other Companies during the planning period (in comparison with SULH, where were organized six seminars or workshops).
All aspects related to SAR operations and off shore pollution response were planned by MRCC, and all aspects related to land response were planned by Inspectorate for Emergency Situations and Romanian Waters “Dobrogea Litoral ”, without any oversight. MRCC received some indications for objectives establishing and pollution response planning from OSPRI, Oil Spill Response and ITOPF.
1. Executive Summary:
2.1. RODELTA 2009 SCENARIO
On the 26th of August 2009, at 11.00 hrs. LT, M/T UTOPIA, under discharging operations at the Single Point Mooring Buoy of Midia Marine Terminal (MMT), about 14 Nm north from Constanta port, was collided by M/V OVIDIUS.
As consequence of the collision, two crew members of M/V OVIDIUS have fallen overboard and another was seriously injured.
M/T UTOPIA is loaded with Siberian light crude oil. Following the collision, an oil spill occurred, four crew members have fallen overboard and two crew members on board the vessel, seriously injured.
Midia Marine Terminal Local Oil Pollution Combating Plan is activated.
DISTRESS signal is received by Constanta MRCC through Radio Costal Station; the National SAR Plan is activated, all SAR actions being co-ordinated by Constanta MRCC according with national procedures.
The aircraft nominated for aerial assessments of spilled area, ditched on the sea, requesting SAR assistance; National Aeronautical SAR Co-ordination Centre activates the national procedures in case of aeronautical incident at sea, MRCC coordinates SAR activities at sea.
A large release of oil spill occurs soon after the collision (abt. 5000 tons of Siberian light crude oil), requiring tier 3 oil spill response, at national level first, both off shore and on shore. Within Technical Secretariat of Operative Command for Marine De-pollution were established 6 working groups:
- The environment impact assessment and area monitoring group;
- The logistics and actions planning group
- The financial-procurements-permits group
- The communications group
- The claims and compensations group
- The public information communications group
Romanian national oil pollution combating capacity being exceeded, international assistance is needed from Black Sea littoral countries and from European Maritime Safety Agency. Black Sea Regional Contingency Plan is activated, Romania acting as a lead country; National On Scene Commander – Constanta County Prefect, became Supreme On Scene Commander, coordinating the oil spill response through maritime and land divisions, in close cooperation with Joint Emergency Response Centre, up to the end of response.
2.2. Exercise objectives:
- Assessment of the interoperability of national authorities with responsibilities in coordinate and conducting search and rescue services;
- Practice of search and rescue intervention procedures;
- Revise of provisions of “Cooperation plan on unitary intervention, in case of emergency situations, for search and rescue of human life within the littoral area and at sea ” taking into account the learn lessons;
- Establish the governmental command structure for major oil spill using the Romanian national plan;
- Use the regional “POLREP ” system to identify and mobilize (on paper or actual) resources from neighboring states;
- Establish a functional Joint Emergency Response Center (JERC) under the Black Sea Contingency Plan;
- Integrate EMSA and private organizations’ resources, within the framework of the Romanian national plan;
- Assessment of the communication system between SAR Aero Coordination Centre and maritime Coordination Centre during a SAR intervention for an aeronautical incident occurred at sea;
- Testing support decision making for search and rescue of lives at sea in the event of an aviation accident occurred in the FIR Romania (SAR software dedicated).
2.3. Exercise running
It has to be mentioned that in real case, if an incident occurs to Midia Marine Terminal Single Mooring Buoy, the pollution reach the shore to Mamaia beach. Because of economical reason, it was established to be used for Land response, the beach existing in the vicinity of Midia Marine Terminal premises.
It was established a Simulation group (8 persons) for events injections. Two of them, located at RNA, were in charge to decide when and what element has to be injected. The others located at UTOPIA, OVIDIUS, MRCC, JERC, Grozavu SAR maritime tug, MAI 1104 patrol boat, injected elements to personnel participating to the exercise.
The principal elements of the exercise are inserted in RODELTA 2009 brochure, which has been distributed to all observers during the opening meeting.
MRCC tasks during the exercise (for oil pollution response):
- to receive the alert, to quickly asses the situation and spread information to all relevant national authorities, and also during the response operation, until it will be decided to finish off-shore response operations;
- request to be sent “notice to mariners ”, regarding affected area;
- to propose the National Contingency Plan activation;
- to apply the procedure for EMSA oil recovery vessels request (one day prior the exercise)
- to inform Black Sea countries, Permanent Secretariat of Black Sea Commission and ERAC about the situation, using POLREP Black Sea format;
- to introduce alert in SSN (it was impossible, there was no possibility to mark the alert as exercise)
- to elaborate Off-shore Intervention Plan and after General Coordinator approval, to co-ordinate the response at sea, even after Regional Contingency Plan is activated and EMSA vessels are on scene;
- to establish safety areas for the vessels involved in off-shore response;
- to keep evidence of all de-pollution actions at sea;
- to ask assistance from Black Sea countries (using POLFAC format) and from EMSA- through MIC (this was done one day before the exercise running);
- to establish the moment when is needed to end off-shore operations, in order to propose it to General Coordinator for approval;
- to verify if all equipments and vessels, which were involved in off-shore response, are decontaminated and stored.
Operational Commandment for Marine De-pollution (CODM), including General Coordinator, tasks:
- to establish the intervention decision, scheme of communications and decisions flow;
- to identify any additional national support for intervention;
- to approve the waste management;
- to approve the international assistance (asking for assistance and conditions imposed) and to facilitate it (custom clearances and fees exceptions);
- to establish administrative and financial rules of intervention;
- to inform the national authorities and the public about the situation;
- to survey the recovery of damages from the polluter.
Romanian Waters “Dobrogea Litoral ” tasks:
- to receive the alert, to quickly asses the situation and spread information to all relevant national authorities, and also during the response operation, until it will be decided to finish on-shore response operations;
- to elaborate On-shore Intervention Plan and after General Coordinator approval, to co-ordinate the response on shore, even after Regional Contingency Plan is activated and Georgia and Turkey sent their teams for assistance;
To establish SSP for on-shore response;
- to keep evidence of all de-pollution actions on shore;
- to establish the moment when is needed to end on-shore operations, in order to propose it to General Coordinator for approval;
- to verify if all equipments, which were involved in land response, are decontaminated and stored.
The environment impact assessment and area monitoring group tasks:
- to assure decisional support by oil drifting prediction with dedicated software;
- to identify sensible areas which could be affected and to find solutions for protecting them;
- identify fishing areas, aquaculture areas, and birds which are located in this area during summer time
- to elaborate waste management plan;
The logistics and actions planning group tasks:
- to keep evidence for personnel, vessels and equipments involved in response operations;
- to asses national capabilities intervention in order to request international assistance;
- to supervise and give advices regarding the intervention plans.
The financial-procurements-permits group tasks:
- to keep evidence for all financial aspects related to response actions;
- to identify supplementary founds for response actions;
- to keep evidence for inventory of resources;
- to facilitate financial exceptions.
The communications group tasks:
- to elaborate Communications Plans for Land Division and for Maritime Division, and also between divisions;
- to make all necessary arrangements in order to supplement the communication channels;
The claims and compensations group tasks:
- to collect evidences from affected parties, together with their compensations requests;
- to collect all financial evidences, in order to recover all prejudices caused by pollution from the polluter, in accordance with CLC’92 IMO Convention.
The public information communications group tasks:
- to handle media (there were prepared 3 press reports, the last one is presented in Annex 5);
- to assure public information, through dedicated website.
2.3. Participating vessels/equipments:
- for simulation
|
Vessel “collided ” |
Organization |
Real name |
|
UTOPIA |
N.C. Maritime Port Administration Constanta S.A. |
CANARA |
|
OVIDIUS |
Midia Marine Terminal |
NEPTUN |
|
For perlite discharging |
Midia Marine Terminal |
Wave Rider fast boat |
- for off-shore oil spill response
|
Country |
Organization |
Name |
Duty |
|
Romania |
ARSVOM |
HERCULES |
Deploying and trawling booms |
|
CRISTAL |
trawling booms |
||
|
RUBIN |
trawling booms |
||
|
SAFIR |
trawling booms |
||
|
Midia Marine Terminal |
Ievoli White |
Deploying and trawling booms |
|
|
Peles |
trawling booms |
||
|
Sea Rider |
Deploying booms for deflection |
||
|
Petromar Cluster Field |
GSP Phoenix |
trawling booms |
|
|
“Dobrogea Litoral ” Water Directorate |
Marina 1 |
Sampling |
|
|
EMSA |
Located in Romania |
GSP Orion |
Sweeping arms |
|
Located in Greece |
Aktea |
Sweeping arms |
- specialised equipment for beach cleaning:
|
Country |
Organization |
|
ROMANIA |
BRANIC S.R.L. |
|
ENVIROTECH S.R.L. |
|
|
Midia Marine Terminal |
|
|
Water Directorate “Dobrogea Litoral ” |
|
|
GEORGIA |
Private company |
|
TURKEY |
ARAS |
|
MARE |
|
|
MEKE |
|
|
SEAGULL |
2.4. Exercise area at sea: 
Exercise area on shore
2.5. Weather on scene
2.6. Oil simulation
Discharging oil was simulated by perlite. Wave Runner, belonging Midia Marine Terminal, discharging the perlite during the exercise.
2. Observers
Observers left the Midia port on board of m/v Anghel Saligny and on board of GSP Phoenix, at 10:30, to reach the exercise area. In addition, GSP Phoenix was involved in off-shore pollution response.
2.1. Observers – Annex 1
3. Evaluation
4.1. Evaluation team:
Bulgaria: Dariya Pisheva and Zhivko Petrov
Romania: Cristian Cazacu
Turkey: Didem Ugur
OSPRI: Peter Taylor
The evaluation form is presented in Annex 3.
In addition, all observers were requested to send their opinion regarding the exercise; the format is presented in Annex 4.
4.2. Acknowledges – Annex 2
Observations made by evaluators and participants:
Most Successful Aspects:
The biggest success is that the RoDelta Exercise becomes a reality, in spite of all the factors impeding the organization of an event of such a scale (the world financial crisis and general financial difficulties met by all the Black Sea Countries response authorities, limited response resources, etc.). In addition this events shows that the Istanbul Commission work in the region is not in vain and the “Black Sea States co-operation ” is not only a formal phrase.
The cooperation demonstrated between littoral States and industry in organizing the event was excellent. Whole organization of the event (incl. logistics) was excellent. The scenario was very realistic – it was quite complicated (as usually happens at practice) and I congratulate organizers for using the opportunity to execute not only oil spill pollution response, but SAR and fire fighting activities, too.
There was a video monitoring of the area of the accident. This is very useful for the coordination activities. The weak point is that there was not direct communication between Border Police, responsible for the video camera and MRCC.
The safety briefing on the observer vessel was good and there was clear delineation of operational areas which were out of bounds for observers.
The perlite (oil simulation substance) was easily visible from the observer vessel, even though it was a considerable distance away (perhaps 1km or more). The perlite remained on the surface for an adequate period (e.g. half and hour or more).
All the elements for offshore operations were considered i.e. containment, recovery and storage of recovered material.
The involvement of two EMSA vessels and the associated open ship event was well organized and very useful.
All participants in the event (organizers, involved stuff from different national authorities, foreign participants and observers) can only benefit from such an Exercise: once - from the practical training, and second – lessons learnt from mistakes made.
Areas for Improvement:
- The procedure for communications between Border Police and MRCC to be updated (established) in order to be useful video monitoring system.
- Almost all oral communications in MRCC and OSCC were in Romanian language. Oral communications to be in English, especially with the response units (vessels).
- Some more drills might be useful in the field of booms deployment (choosing the right vessels, right speed, improve the communication and coordination between the boom deploying vessels).
- A participant list would have been very useful for observers.
- According Romanian Ministry of Environment report, it is very useful for every Black Sea country, especially for Romania, to have a Coastline Intervention Center, like the Georgian one.
- It was not clear when the different levels of the NCPs are activated and how the command was transferred from one command center to another.
Conclusions:
1. The RODELTA 2009 Exercise was a great example for an excellent collaboration between different national organizations/institutions involved, as well as for a good co-operation on international level.
2. Society (citizens) has to be informed and its attention might be paid on the efforts of the response authorities to protect the human life in case of an incident, to protect the marine environment from pollution and to minimize the damages caused and thus to defend State’s interests as a whole;
3. Events like RoDelta are great opportunity to stress the attention of the politicians and different level decision-makers on the seriousness of the problems, related to major oil pollution incidents, as well as on the importance of further planning and some investments in the fields of pollution preparedness, response and co-operation.
4. Combining SAR and oil spill response does not detract from regional exercises.
5. Perlite appears to make an excellent oil simulation substance.
Proposals:
- To organize more operational exercises for better co-operation between companies’ practices, to be much better prepared to co-operate with any vessel.
- To pay more attention for observers/evaluators schedule, to assure that they are able to observe all parts of exercises. It has to be established an Exercise coordinator-guide able to describe the exercise episodes (it seems that the brochure wasn’t enough).
- We have to discuss also proposals for the BRAVO part of exercise (presented in Annex 2) and to update the Guide for Black Sea exercises.
- To avoid deploying boom between two powerful offshore vessels.
-Integrating ship-owner and oil industry interests in DELTA exercises is realistic and beneficial to all parties.
-Incorporate EMSA into future DELTA exercises where possible.
-Use RODELTA approach (partnership between government and industry) as model for future DELTA exercises.
- To adopt HELCOM practice, for land response within DELTA exercises, where it is allowed to assist the lead country just for border countries.
- SSN to be updated, in order to be possible to test the service during exercises.
Appendices or Attachments:
Annex 1 – RODELTA 2009 international participants and observers [pdf] [html]
Annex 2 – POLREP acknowledges [pdf] [html]
Annex 3 - EVALUATORS evaluation form [pdf] [html]
Annex 4 – Participants evaluation form [pdf] [html]
Annex 5 – Final press report [pdf] [html]
