HELCOM fleet to hold a major disaster response exercise in the Gulf of Riga

Helsinki, 27 July (HELCOM Information Service) – The Helsinki Commission for the protection of the Baltic marine environment will conduct its annual maritime exercise BALEX DELTA 2009 on 26 August outside Riga, Latvia, to test the Baltic Sea countries’ preparedness to jointly respond to a major oil spill accident at sea.

This operational exercise, the largest maritime emergency and counter-pollution drill of its kind in the Baltic Sea area and one of the largest worldwide, will involve the release of simulated oil, the deployment of pollution response vessels from the coastal countries, the establishment of a unified command structure and communication system, and a full-scale oil recovery operation at the site of the accident, including actual deployment of oil containment booms and skimming equipment.

It is expected that nine oil-pollution-combating ships and smaller vessels from six HELCOM Member States - Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden, as well as a Latvian Air Force surveillance plane will take part in the exercise. Also, the European Commission (which is one of the HELCOM Members) will be represented by one response vessel chartered by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). In addition, over 30 observers from Estonia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, as well as EMSA will be monitoring the actions of the response units. The Exercise Evaluation Team will consist of representatives of Latvia, Lithuania and Russia.

The aim of exercise is to test HELCOM’s response system, its command and communication structure, the cooperation between the response units of the Baltic Sea countries, as well as their capability and efficiency. 

“BALEX DELTA exercises are crucial in keeping us ready to deploy in the event that a real oil spill accident occurs," says Peter Soeberg Poulsen, Chairman of the HELCOM Response Group. “These exercises are considered as continuous improvement opportunities to achieve the highest level of preparedness to respond to a major oil spill in the Baltic Sea area. They are designed to enhance cooperation and capability of the HELCOM countries to provide a fast and effective joint response to an accident in order to avert an environmental catastrophe, and also give the host nation a great opportunity to test its own capacity to command an international operation with a large response fleet.”

This year's HELCOM annual exercise is organized by the Latvian Coast Guard Service and the Ministry of the Environment. The exercise involves a scenario where an oil tanker carrying a cargo of around 90,000 tonnes of gasoil (diesel fuel) and 550 tonnes of heavy fuel oil runs aground off the Latvian coast, outside Riga. As a result of the accident, the ship suffers a hull breach and leaks around 10,000 tonnes of gasoil and 400 tonnes of heavy fuel drifting towards the Latvian coastline. Units from the HELCOM countries are tasked to jointly prevent the oil slick from coming ashore. The oil spilled during the exercise will be simulated by the release of a large amount of popcorn (10 cubic metres) at the site of hypothetical grounding. 

Background:

BALEX DELTA operational response exercises have been held annually since 1989. Throughout this time HELCOM has steadily improved the readiness of the countries around the Baltic to jointly respond to oil spills at sea. The Baltic Sea countries now have more than 45 open-sea going response vessels that are located around the region. These vessels are able to reach any place in the Baltic Sea within 6 to 48 hours of being notified of an accident.

Shipping traffic densities in the Baltic Sea are among the highest anywhere in the world, accounting for up to 15% of the world’s cargo transportation. According to the HELCOM Automatic Identification System (AIS) for monitoring maritime traffic, around 60,000 ships were plying the waters of the Baltic Sea last year. Approximately 46% of these ships were cargo vessels, 14% were tankers and 11% were passenger ships. There are about 2,000 ships in the Baltic marine area at any given moment. And each month around 3,500-5,000 ships ply the waters of the Baltic. Forecasts indicate that due to economic growth, especially in the eastern part of the region, the maritime transport in the Baltic is expected to grow by 64% between 2003 and 2020. The amount of cargo shipped on the Baltic reached 826 million tonnes in 2007, with the fastest annual growth taking place in Russia. The transportation of oil and other potentially hazardous cargoes is growing steeply and steadily. By 2015 a 40% increase is expected in the amounts of oil being shipped on the Baltic, which currently stand at 170 million tonnes of oil a year. The use of much bigger tankers is also expected to rise – there will be more tankers in the Baltic carrying 100,000-150,000 tonnes of oil.

Although growing traffic is a positive sign of intensified cooperation in the Baltic Sea region and a prospering economy, it also makes potentially polluting shipping accidents more likely. Last year, there were 135 shipping accidents, including 60 groundings and 41 collisions. Fortunately, most of the accidents in the Baltic do not cause notable pollution, but even one large-scale accident would seriously threaten the marine environment. Over the period 2000-2008, an average of 7% of all reported accidents resulted in some kind of pollution. Two of the five most serious accidents in the Baltic marine area have occurred since 2001 – involving “Baltic Carrier” in 2001 (2,700 tonnes of oil spilt), and “Fu Shan Hai” in 2003 (1,200 tonnes of oil spilt).

Follow-up:

Media Advisory http://www.helcom.fi/press_office/news_helcom/en_GB/MediaAdvisory_BalexDelta2009/ 

Note to Editors:

The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, usually referred to as the Helsinki Commission, or HELCOM, is an intergovernmental organisation of all the nine Baltic Sea countries and the EU which works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution. 

HELCOM is the governing body of the "Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area," known as the Helsinki Convention.

For more information, please contact:

Mr. Nikolay Vlasov

Information Secretary

HELCOM

Tel: +358 (0)207 412 635

Fax: +358 (0)207 412 639

E-mail: nikolay.vlasov@helcom.fi