Australian Marine Oil Spill Centre

Last updated

Australian Marine Oil Spill Centre
Formation1991
Type NGO
PurposeAccident response
HeadquartersGeelong, Victoria
Region served
Australian territorial water and parts of Indonesian and Papua New Guinean waters
Parent organisation
Australian Institute of Petroleum
Website www.amosc.com.au

The Australian Marine Oil Spill Centre (AMOSC) is an organisation set up by the petroleum industry to enable a quick and effective response to oil spills around the Australian coastline. The organisation is owned by the Australian Institute of Petroleum and is financed by nine participating oil companies and other industry-related companies. [1]

Petroleum industry activities linked to handling oil and gas products

The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry or the oil patch, includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting, and marketing of petroleum products. The largest volume products of the industry are fuel oil and gasoline (petrol). Petroleum (oil) is also the raw material for many chemical products, including pharmaceuticals, solvents, fertilizers, pesticides, synthetic fragrances, and plastics. The extreme monetary value of oil and its products has led to it being known as "black gold". The industry is usually divided into three major components: upstream, midstream, and downstream.

Oil spill Release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially marine areas, due to human activity

An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into the ocean or coastal waters, but spills may also occur on land. Oil spills may be due to releases of crude oil from tankers, offshore platforms, drilling rigs and wells, as well as spills of refined petroleum products and their by-products, heavier fuels used by large ships such as bunker fuel, or the spill of any oily refuse or waste oil.

The Australian Institute of Petroleum (AIP) is a representative body for Australia's petroleum industry. Its headquarters a located in Canberra and it was established in 1976. The body is managed by a board composed of chief executives, senior representatives and an Executive Director.

Contents

It was established in 1991 [2] and the following year moved its base to Geelong, Victoria. Its establishment was a direct result of a review conducted by the Australian oil industry following the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Geelong City in Victoria, Australia

Geelong is a port city located on Corio Bay and the Barwon River, in the state of Victoria, Australia. Geelong is 75 kilometres (47 mi) south-west of the state capital, Melbourne. It is the second largest Victorian city, with an estimated urban population of 253,269 as of June 2016. Geelong runs from the plains of Lara in the north to the rolling hills of Waurn Ponds to the south, with Corio Bay to the east and hills to the west. Geelong is the administrative centre for the City of Greater Geelong municipality, which covers urban, rural and coastal areas surrounding the city, including the Bellarine Peninsula.

Victoria (Australia) State in Australia

Victoria is a state in south-eastern Australia. Victoria is Australia's smallest mainland state and its second-most populous state overall, making it the most densely populated state overall. Most of its population lives concentrated in the area surrounding Port Phillip Bay, which includes the metropolitan area of its state capital and largest city, Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city. Victoria is bordered by Bass Strait and Tasmania to the south, New South Wales to the north, the Tasman Sea, to the east, and South Australia to the west.

<i>Exxon Valdez</i> oil spill 1989 oil spill in Alaska

The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, March 24, 1989, when Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker owned by Exxon Shipping Company, bound for Long Beach, California, struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef, 1.5 mi (2.4 km) west of Tatitlek, Alaska, at 12:04 a.m. local time and spilled 10.8 million US gallons (260,000 bbl) of crude oil over the next few days. It is considered to be one of the worst human-caused environmental disasters. The Valdez spill is the second largest in US waters, after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in terms of volume released. Prince William Sound's remote location, accessible only by helicopter, plane, or boat, made government and industry response efforts difficult and severely taxed existing response plans. The region is a habitat for salmon, sea otters, seals and seabirds. The oil, originally extracted at the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field, eventually affected 1,300 miles (2,100 km) of coastline, of which 200 miles (320 km) were heavily or moderately oiled.

Accident response

The Centre has an equipment stockpile on 24-hour stand-by. The AMOSplan is voluntary mutual aid arrangement where oil company equipment may be shared to best respond to a spill. [2] AMOSplan replaced the former Marine Oil Spills Action Plan (MOSAP). [3] The MOSAP was activated when an oil spill became too large for an individual company to adequately deal with.

Integration with government responses to spills is framed within the National Plan to Combat Pollution of the Sea by Oil, which is managed by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. [4]

Australian Maritime Safety Authority authority of the Commonwealth government of Australia responsible for regulation and safety oversight of Australias shipping fleet and management of Australias international maritime obligations

Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) is an Australian statutory authority responsible for the regulation and safety oversight of Australia's shipping fleet and management of Australia's international maritime obligations. The authority has jurisdiction over Australia's exclusive economic zone which covers an area of 11,000,000 square kilometres (4,200,000 sq mi). AMSA maintains Australia's shipping registries: the general and the international shipping registers.

Major incidents

In 2009, AMOSC responded to the Montara oil spill in the Timor Sea by mobilising aircraft and dispersant for aerial spraying. [5]

Montara oil spill oil spill

The Montara oil spill was an oil and gas leak and subsequent slick that took place in the Montara oil field in the Timor Sea, off the northern coast of Western Australia. It is considered one of Australia's worst oil disasters. The slick was released following a blowout from the Montara wellhead platform on 21 August 2009, and continued leaking until 3 November 2009, when the leak was stopped by pumping mud into the well and the wellbore cemented thus "capping" the blowout. The West Atlas rig is owned by the Norwegian-Bermudan Seadrill, and operated by PTTEP Australasia (PTTEPAA), a subsidiary of PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) which is in turn a subsidiary of PTT, the Thai state-owned oil and gas company was operating over on adjacent well on the Montara platform. Houston-based Halliburton was involved in cementing the well. The Montara field is located off the Kimberley coast, 250 km (160 mi) north of Truscott airbase, and 690 km (430 mi) west of Darwin. Sixty-nine workers were safely evacuated from the West Atlas jackup drilling rig when the blowout occurred.

Timor Sea A sea bounded to the north by the island of Timor, to the east by the Arafura Sea, to the south by Australia

The Timor Sea is a relatively shallow sea bounded to the north by the island of Timor, to the east by the Arafura Sea, to the south by Australia.

See also

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Search and rescue Search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger

Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search is conducted over. These include mountain rescue; ground search and rescue, including the use of search and rescue dogs; urban search and rescue in cities; combat search and rescue on the battlefield and air-sea rescue over water.

Responsibilities for traditional coast guard duties in Australia are distributed across various federal, state and community agencies. The de facto coast guard of Australia is the Maritime Border Command, a joint command of the Australian Defence Force and the Australian Border Force which works alongside the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. Each state and territory government have specific maritime safety agencies and police marine units. In addition, there are several private volunteer coast guard organisations which act as auxiliary search and rescue services and maritime safety educators with the largest organisations being the Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol established in 1937, the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard established in 1961, and Marine Rescue New South Wales established in 2009.

Oil tanker Ship designed for the bulk transport of oil

An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crude oil from its point of extraction to refineries. For example, moving crude oil from oil wells in a producing country to refineries in another country. Product tankers, generally much smaller, are designed to move refined products from refineries to points near consuming markets. For example, moving gasoline from refineries in Europe to consumer markets in Nigeria and other West African nations.

BP British multinational oil and gas company

BP plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the world's seven oil and gas "supermajors", whose performance in 2012 made it the world's sixth-largest oil and gas company, the sixth-largest energy company by market capitalization and the company with the world's 12th-largest revenue (turnover). It is a vertically integrated company operating in all areas of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading. It also has renewable energy interests in biofuels, wind power and solar technology.

West Cork oil spill

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Prirazlomnoye field oil field

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The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is an industrial disaster that began on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect, considered to be the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry and estimated to be 8% to 31% larger in volume than the previous largest, the Ixtoc I oil spill, also in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. Federal Government estimated the total discharge at 4.9 million barrels. After several failed efforts to contain the flow, the well was declared sealed on September 19, 2010. Reports in early 2012 indicated that the well site was still leaking. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is regarded as one of the largest environmental disasters in American history.

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The Port Bonython oil spill occurred on 30 August 1992, when the fuel tank of the tanker Era was pierced by the bow of the tugboat Turmoil during berthing operations in upper Spencer Gulf, South Australia. Wind and swell were high and 296 tonnes of bunker fuel were released into Spencer Gulf. The incident resulted in 500 oiled birds and damage to 15 km of mangrove and seagrass habitat south-west of Port Pirie.

Offshore installation security refers to the resilience of any kind of maritime offshore installation against intentionally caused harm.

References

  1. ↑ "About Amosc". Australian Institute of Petroleum. Archived from the original on 3 April 2012. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
  2. 1 2 "About AMOSC". Australian Marine Oil Spill Centre. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
  3. ↑ "AMOSC Plan". Australian Marine Oil Spill Centre. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
  4. ↑ "National Plan". Australian Maritime Safety Authority. Archived from the original on 24 February 2012. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
  5. ↑ Jano Gibson (21 August 2009). "Oil spill emergency off WA coast". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
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