Total oil spill costs and compensations

Although counteracting environmental programmes and policies have been strengthened, large oil spills still occur at irregular intervals. The total oil spill costs and their compensations have attracted much interest from various parties, such as local stakeholders, and state and federal governments. This paper addresses five major cost categories whose aggregations are expected to cover the overall direct and indirect costs after the release of an oil spill. Among them, research costs should not be neglected, since they tend to be high if public attention has been drawn to the case. Through an examination of the relationship between the total oil spill costs and their admissible claims, we found that:

1. admissible claims do not cover the overall costs of the oil spill, and
2. admissible claims cannot be compensated in full in the case of large spills.

Clearly, a sound oil spill contingency management aims to minimize both the environmental impacts of areas most at risk and the total oil spill costs. In this paper an economic model for measuring environmental damages following an oil spill is addressed and applied to the Prestige case which happened to be the worst oil pollution in the history of Spain. The model indicates how an ideally a priori economic evaluation may intuitively help managers to make informed as well as fast decisions in contingency cases.     

Oil spill contingency plans and policies in Norway and the United Kingdom

Abstract

Tankers and offshore exploration and production facilities are the main sources of marine oil spills in the North Sea. Both Norway and the United Kingdom conduct vigorous programs to improve oil spill response, including systematic research and testing of oil spill cleanup technology, regional stockpiling of oil spill response equipment, training of response personnel, and conducting periodic in‐water oil spill “war games.”; The United Kingdom relies on chemical dispersants, while Norway prefers the use of mechanical containment and recovery devices. Norway also requires its offshore operators to demonstrate that their oil spill response equipment and contingency plans meet specific performance standards.     

Modelling the investment decision of the entrepreneur in the tanker sector: choosing between a second-hand vessel and a newly built one

It is often the case that the investor in the shipping sector faces the dilemma of investing in a second-hand vessel or building a new one. This happens because an active second-hand market for almost all kinds of vessels exists. We argue that one of the prime considerations for the investment decision should not be the price of the vessel per se, second-hand (SH) or newly built (NP) but

• ?(a)?the relative price ratio (SH/NP) second-hand price over the new building price and

• ?(b)?the movement of this ratio.

We investigate the determinants of this ratio across different vessel sizes in the tanker sector and show that it can be used as an effective tool in investment decision as well as in asset appraisal.

We employ monthly data between 1995 and 2006 for four different ship sizes–VLCC, Suezmax, Aframax and Handysize–and implement an error correction model.

The investment decision depends on a number of risk and return variables as well as the perceived speed of adjustment of the price ratio to its equilibrium level.

Overall we claim that the cyclicality of the shipping sector together with expectations formed by the agents operating in it (the entrepreneur, the ship-owner and the broker), determine the movement of the ratio and hence the decision of the entrepreneur.     

A comparative analysis of the European and North-American approaches to dealing with major oil spills

Background  

The question of what should be the right level of preparedness to react to a major oil spill (i.e. the EXXON VALDEZ spill, the ERIKA spill, and the PRESTIGE spill) is highly debated, especially in the aftermath of such spills. Little research, however, has been conducted with the aim to identify and compare governments’ best practices not only to fund preparedness measures but also to assess the countries’ ability to respond effectively to catastrophic oil spills. It is the author’s belief that important lessons can be learnt from a comparative analysis of countries’ best practices.     

Post OPA-90 vessel oil spill differentials: transfers versus vessel accidents

This study investigates vessel oil spill differentials for transfer and vessel-accident spills for the post Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA-90) period. In-water and out-of-water transfer/vessel-accident oil spill equations are estimated, utilizing tobit regression analysis and data of individual vessel oil spills (of oil-cargo and non-oil-cargo vessels) investigated by the US Coast Guard for the 1991-1995 period. In the data, 47.5% (94.1%) of in-water (out-of-water) gallons of oil spilled were transfer spills; non-oil-cargo vessels accounted for 44.2% of all gallons spilled. The estimation results suggest that out-of-water transfer spills are larger in size than vessel-accident spills, but are similar in size for in-water spills. Transfer/vessel-accident spill differentials exist (do not exist) among determinants of in-water (out-of-water) spills. The policy implication of the results is that a vessel oil spill-reduction differentiation regulatory regime is needed that differentiates between transfer and vessel-accident spills and in-water and out-of-water spills for reducing vessel oil spills.     

Environmental risk evaluation criteria

This paper describes an approach to incorporating environmental risk evaluation criteria within IMO’s guidelines for Formal Safety Assessment (FSA). Such criteria are currently absent from FSA, and the discussion to include them has just started. Said criteria are relevant for evaluating on a cost-benefit basis Risk Control Options (RCOs) for reducing oil spill pollution risk. Oil pollution may comefrom any ship, including bunker spills from non-tank vessels. RCOs are not necessarily ship-based, and may include vessel traffic management information systems (VTMIS) and other options. The proposed approach may be useful in extending FSA to cover environmental risk evaluation criteria and combines such criteria with criteria already in use in FSA. It can also readily be extended to environmental consequences other than oil pollution. Recent IMO developments on this matter are also reported.     

Consensus Building in Oil Spill Response Planning Using a Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation

Major accidental oil spills still affect ecologically and economically sensitive marine areas and shorelines, even though environmental programs and policies have led to an increase of ship safety measures. The aim of decision making during oil spill response management is to minimize pollution effects on coastal areas, once spills occur. However, limited equipments or options prevent such a globally satisfying combat strategy. Thus, often preferences between different coastal areas or uses, respectively, have to be made in an operational way. Such a management issue is here taken as a multigroup multicriteria decision-making problem involving a variety of stakeholders and natural dynamic environments. For solving such a complex problem, this article proposes a second order fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (FCE) model, which takes the influence of multiple criteria and the knowledge of different interested groups into account and further provides a basis for simulating a voting-based decision process. With the combination of oil fate simulations and FCE technique, managers are able to realize an integrated management for oil spill. Through a case study of the Prestige accident off the Spanish coast in 2002, it is demonstrated that the model provides a simple, effective and adaptable method to solve operational management problems related to complex human nature interactions as realized during oil spill management. Moreover, a series of analyses and comparisons are focused on to explore potentials and limitations of the FCE for further applications in the field of multigroup multicriteria decision making.     

Modeling oil spills in a river—lake system

A general model shell, ROSS3, is developed for simulating oil spills in complex river systems using techniques which have not been previously exploited in oil spill models. ROSS3's new approach has several advantages over the approach to model oil spills in the past: (a) The use of a time-varying boundary-fitted coordinate system that allows accurate accounting for complex river/lake boundary as well as the river boundary changes as its water levels fluctuate; (b) The ability to confine two-dimensional hydrodynamic computations to a limited river reach; (c) The ability to interactively layout the channel networks for setting up the model, define extra cross sections to increase the accuracy if needed, in addition to the traditional data entry and visualization interfaces.ROSS3 is a two-layer two-dimensional oip spill model that can simulate the mechanism of advection, horizontal diffusion, mechanical spreading, shoreline deposition, evaporation, dissolution, vertical mixing, resurfacing and sinking. In ROSS3 spilled oil may be a surface slick or suspended oil droplets, or a combination of both. Both free surface and ice cover conditions can be simulated. The flow of conditions can be varied and the unsteady flow model can be run within ROSS3 to simulate the flow conditions in both the river and the lake. The ice conditions can be added or removed from the model input using easy interactive procedures.     

渤海冰期溢油非常规应对策略和技术

渤海冰期溢油非常规策略主要针对无法使用现有常规回收策略加以回收的有冰环境。文中提出的非常规应对策略依据海冰、溢油、海水之间微妙关系因势利导,提出解决冰期溢油极端情况下的处置难题。     

风场作用下趸船区域溢油动态模拟研究

以舟山定海港区某油库码头为背景建立了风场作用下的趸船区域溢油动态模型。针对趸船区域可能产生油品溢漏的位置,对趸船区域的溢油运动情况进行了模拟分析。模拟结果显示,当泄漏油品为柴油(850kg/m3,0.003825Pa·s)、泄漏点宽度为0.5m、油品泄漏速度为1m/s时,受风场作用,发生在趸船附近的溢油事故,其溢漏油品不仅随潮水运动流动,还会大量的在码头与岸线之间的区域及码头两端部附近产生积聚。在进行溢油事故快速控制和污油回收时,需要重点针对该区域进行监控防治。     

落实科学发展观 提高辽宁辖区船舶溢油应急处置能力

船舶数量的增多和船舶大型化，使海上因船舶交通事故引发的船舶溢油风险概率大增。一直以来。由于我国对船舶溢油应急处置能力建设的滞后，有效应对海上溢油尤其是突发性重大溢油事故的能力还很弱，因此，尽快提高溢油应急处置能力具有重大的现实意义。文中从提高对船舶溢油应急处置能力重要性的认识出发。科学分析了造成应急处置能力低的根源，并从落实科学发展观的角度，具体提出了有效提高海上溢油应急处置能力的方法和途径。     

The rationality of conference pricing and output policies. Part 2

In Part 1 ^{* *}Maritime Studies and Management (1975) Vol 3, No. 2, pp. 103–111. of this article a background to the economics of conference operation was provided, and conference fleet planning and single voyage costs were discussed. This part of the paper will analyse the economic objectives of conferences and will consider the implications of ending the conference princing structure. Some recommendations are also offered.     

惠州港水域船舶溢油污染预防的研究

惠州港为珠三角地区重要船载化学危险品港口,面临着严峻的船舶溢油和化学品泄漏污染的威胁,加强惠州港危管防污能力建设,消除安全隐患,杜绝船舶溢油事故发生显得尤为重要。文中着重针对惠州港水域船舶溢油风险与污染防控展开分析论述,并提出相关建议。     

船舶油污损害赔偿评估的模糊类比分析法

根据油污事故损害赔偿案例之间所具有的类比性,以及事故产生损害程度与溢油种类、数量、油膜扩散面积、受污海岸类型和长度等指标密切相关的特点,提出油污损害赔偿评估的多指标模糊类比分析方法,通过等评估的油污事故与历史赔偿案例之间的多指标综合类比进行关于损害程度的模糊排序,从而分析得到的此次油污事故的损害程度大小及应赔偿索赔的范围和具体数值,与直接统计评估法相比,分析方法所需要的数据和资料较少而且易得,评估     

船舶溢油应急处置组织间关联关系形式化描述

为形式化描述船舶溢油应急处置流程中相关组织间的联系,首先利用集合论思想,将应急处置流程抽象为任务集、实体集和联系集的组合,并基于事故报告、应急计划启动、应急方案生成和应急方案执行4个阶段进行形式化描述,在此基础上,给出应急处置流程中的相关组织间的联系网络。研究表明:任务集、实体集和联系集3个不交集合可以覆盖应急处置的全部行为要素,集中式的组织结构可以提高组织的时效性。     

Modelling the impact of double hull technology on oil spill numbers

This article presents the results of modelling the behaviour of oil spill numbers published by the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation over the period 1970 to 2005. Poisson count or negative binomial models are estimated to identify the major determinants of oil spill numbers over this period. The results are used to estimate the number of oil spills that would have occurred in the absence of the adoption of double hull technology. Other potential factors, such as changes in the regulatory regimes regarding oil transportation, were found to be insignificant.     

珠江口区域海上溢油动态预测信息系统的开发与应用

为了对《珠江口区域溢油应急计划》提供决策支持,在国内外相关研究成果基础上,针对珠江口海域的特点,研究开发了先进实用的"珠江口区域海上溢油动态预报信息系统",综合了三维潮流模型、三维溢油扩散模型、溢油风化模型、应急反应模型、以及电子海图、地理信息系统(GIS)、数据库等关键技术。该系统可以预测模拟并可视化显示海上溢油的漂移扩散和性质变化过程,同时显示环境敏感区和应急人员设备分布等相关信息。实际溢油应用案例表明,该系统的预报模拟结果与现场实际情况完全相符,能有效地提高海上溢油污染事故的应急决策效率。     

Hydrodynamic performance of multiple-row slotted breakwaters

This study examines the hydrodynamic performance of multiple-row vertical slotted breakwaters. We developed a mathematical model based on an eigenfunction expansion method and a least squares technique for Stokes second-order waves. The numerical results obtained for limiting cases of double-row and triple-row walls are in good agreement with results of previous studies and experimental results. Comparisons with experimental measurements of the reflection, transmission, and dissipation coefficients (C _R , C _T , and C _E ) for double-row walls show that the proposed mathematical model adequately reproduces most of the important features. We found that for double-row walls, the C _R increases with increasing wave number, kd, and with a decreasing permeable wall part, dm. The C _T follows the opposite trend. The C _E slowly increases with an increasing kd for lower kd values, reaches a maximum, and then decreases again. In addition, an increasing porosity of dm would significantly decrease the C _R , while increasing the C _T . At lower values of kd, a decreasing porosity increases the C _E , but for high values of kd, a decreasing porosity reduces the C _E . The numerical results indicate that, for triple-row walls, the effect of the arrangement of the chamber widths on hydrodynamic characteristics is not significant, except when kd<0.5. Double-row slotted breakwaters may exhibit a good wave-absorbing performance at kd>0.5, where by the horizontal wave force may be smaller than that of a single wall. On the other hand, the difference between double-row and triple-row vertical slotted breakwaters is marginal.     

论船舶溢油污染及应急反应

近年来油船的数量和吨位越来越大,油船进出港口次数日渐增加,船舶发生海损事故的几率也随之增加。由于船舶碰撞等海难事故而发生的溢油,也成为海域污染的主要污染源之一。目前我国的海上溢油应急防治能力还是较低的,与国际上相关先进成果相比,理论和实用性方面均有一定差距,提高海上溢油应急反应能力刻不容缓。     

Future challenges for transport infrastructure pricing in PPP arrangements

In this paper we report the conclusion of a research project dedicated to pricing regimes in public-private partnership contracts for the provision of transport infrastructure (Macário et al., 2009). Several elements have been brought to the bulk of knowledge that supports the design and implementation of public-private partnership in the transport sector. These developments have been achieved in the following domain:

•

Understand difficulties of price setting within the PPP environment, given the potential conflict of interest among the different parties engaged, go beyond the discussion of first best versus second-best price setting mechanisms.

•

Understand the role of government and regulators in the performance of a PPP.

•

Translate the issue of asymmetries of information between parties into a risk taking language.

•

Devise alternative contractual designs that will enable competitive price setting.

•

Understand that a structural element is missing to conciliate the views of the different stakeholders over a PPP: a bridge between infrastructure costs and charges.

The objective of this paper is to overview the main challenges ahead of transport infrastructure pricing, considering the current and likely future policies as well as the field constraints. Moreover, a proposal is formulated to overcome some of the current pitfalls associated to transport infrastructure pricing.