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.     

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.     

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。     

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.     

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。     

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。     

Modeling Coastal and Marine Environmental Risks in Belize: the Marine Integrated Decision Analysis System (MIDAS)

The livelihood of coastal communities is directly linked to the health of intertidal and marine ecosystems. Coastal zones and marine areas are rapidly changing and highly vulnerable to impacts from climate change, accelerating human development, and over-fishing. Quality of life and the benefits of coastal development can be greatly enhanced, and costs minimized, by projecting and comparing alternative policy outcomes before management decisions are made. This article describes the Marine Integrated Decision Analysis System (MIDAS), an interactive decision support tool designed to assist the users and managers of Belize's system of marine management areas (MMAs) in understanding the interactions among various ecological, socioeconomic, and governance conditions in a spatially explicit manner. MIDAS can simulate and visualize the likely effects of alternative management strategies and therefore provides an important tool for evaluating potential scenarios. We developed two MIDAS modules to address specific threats in Belize –spatial risk resulting from mangrove deforestation in coastal areas and the potential effect of an oil spill off the coast of Belize. Workshops conducted in Belize indicate that diverse user groups such as fishers, tourism operators, and public environmental agencies can successfully utilize MIDAS to understand MMA outcomes, and environmental risks.     

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。     

A human factors systems approach to examining oil spills in tankbarge operations: analysis and reappraisal of management policies

An important problem in the US maritime industry is the large number of oil spills that occur as a result of oil transfer operations involving tankbarges. Recently, the US Coast Guard initiated a new programme entitled Prevention Through People that represents a concerted effort towards preventing human errors leading to casualities and oil spills. The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to explore tankbarge oil transfer operations from the standpoint of regulatory, management, and operational perspectives in order to determine the likelihood that this new initiative will indeed result in a better understanding of the causal basis for human error in these operations and, more generally, in the maritime industry. The results of this novel study are discussed and summarized in terms of four broad classes of recommendations.     

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.     

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.     

船舶溢油风险评估方法的探讨

船舶溢油风险评估在船舶防污染管理方面应用十分广泛,但如何进行评估,尚没有一个统一的方法。笔者在承担船舶溢油风险评估项目过程中,对风险评估方法进行了一些探索,文中将根据自己的体会,就风险评估中的一些难点问题与大家讨论。     

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.     

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。     

船舶溢油事故污染的行政治理

在早期的船舶溢油事故污染研究中,对纯技术的研究远远优先于行政组织管理方面的研究。为此,围绕船舶溢油事故污染行政治理,通过实证分析和规范分析,对行政治理的基本内涵、职能、组织架构和应急计划制定等进行了探讨。研究表明:世界各国虽然对船舶溢油事故污染行政治理予以了高度重视,但基本停留在应用实践层面,因此有必要结合实践,从理论角度予以规范化描述。同样,我国船舶溢油事故污染行政治理尚处于初始启动阶段,有必要加快规范化和合理化的进程。     

长江沿岸小型区域性溢油应急设备库建设

文中针对长江沿岸溢油设备配备现状,深入分析长江沿岸小型区域性溢油应急设备库的优势,力求寻找一条解决目前溢油设备配备存在的问题的新途径,从而有效提高长江水域溢油处置能力。     

Field experiments and new design of a spilled oil tracking autonomous buoy

It is important to forecast the location of oil spills to realize effective and adequate oil spill response operations when huge oil spilsl occur. In order to enhance the accuracy of oil drifting simulations, one needs to obtain the meteorological and oceanographic data around the oil slick. In general, the drifting velocity vector of an oil spill contains a wind velocity vector and a water current velocity vector. SOTAB-II was developed for autonomous tracking of oil slicks drifting on the sea surface. It is equipped with a sail whose size and direction are controllable to drift along with the oil slick autonomously. In addition, SOTAB-II transmits its location and necessary measured data around it to the land base in real-time. The results of field experiments using SOTAB-II with a cylindrical hull brought us the effectiveness of the sail and its control. However, the drifting speed of SOTAB-II was lower than a theoretical speed for the oil slick. In order to overcome this problem, SOTAB-II was redesigned. A yacht shape was adopted to reduce the hydrodynamic drag in the water in the advancing direction. Transverse stability, scales of brake board and sail, maneuverability, and performance of tracking spilled oil on the sea surface were considered in the process of the design.     

利用雷达建立近岸海域溢油污染监测体系的探索

文章首先介绍了目前发达国家所采取的沿海溢油监测监视防范体系,分析了雷达数据在其监测监视体系中的地位和作用,然后介绍了我国在沿海溢油监测监视防范体系建设方面的现状,并分析了制约雷达数据在我国实际应用中存在的问题。利用Envisat的ASAR数据对发生在西班牙海域的溢油事件进行了半自动化的溢油油膜范围的提取,给出了处理结果,并对目前国外就雷达数据在其监视监测体系中的应用方法进行了介绍。根据国内外沿海溢油监测监视体系的现状对比和国内制约因素的分析,结合实例数据的分析处理结果,表明雷达数据在沿海溢油监测中具有突出优点,未来在我国近岸海域溢油监测体系中将得到较为广泛的应用。     

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.     

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。