In Singapore, several governmental institutions are delegated the task of cleaning up the aftermaths of oil spills in the region under their care. Such governmental institutions include the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), National Environmental Agency (NEA), National Parks Board (NPB) and Sentosa Development Corporation. However, emphasis should be put on the fact that these institutions are not responsible for cleaning up every oil spill that would occur in Singapore, but only those that occur in their areas of management.
A MPA craft sprays dispersant to break up oil slick caused by a collision incident
Photo source: The Straits Times
Crafts from MPA and oil spill response companies carrying out cleaning operations in affected areas
Photo source: Oil spillage clean-up and containment efforts
In most cases, these governmental institutions would deploy their own resources in the clean-up operations. Resources commonly used in cleaning up oil spills include vacuum trucks, chemical dispersants, biological agents, shovels, skimmers and many more.
In a recent case, following two vessel collisions that led to oil spillages south of Jurong Island and off Marina South, 20 crafts from MPA and oil response companies were delegated to the operation of cleaning up the oil spills. On the other hand, Sentosa Development Corporation is the governmental agency responsible for cleaning up St John’s Island and Kusu Island in the event an oil spill occurs.
In other cases, governmental institutions would occasionally engage the services of oil spill response contractors if the extent of oil spills is beyond what they can handle or are familiar with, or that they require more professional expertise. Several of such Singapore-based oil spill response agencies include Oil Spill Response Ltd, Resolve Salvage & Fire (Asia) and T&T Marine Salvage, Inc. Take for instance the same two vessel collisions mentioned earlier, NEA actually sourced for an oil spill response contractor to further support the agency since the incidents caused oil spills to be widely spread across different coastlines, making clean-up efforts difficult and slow. It has been claimed by relevant authorities that although external support such as contracting is allowed, each governmental agency is still to maintain the minimal capabilities expected of them in dealing with oil spill situations.
Therefore, to maintain Singapore’s high level of readiness to respond efficiently to oil spill incidents, the MPA organizes a multi-agency joint oil spill exercise (code-named “JOSE 98”) annually. Some of the 19 agencies that are involved in these exercises include Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), Shell Eastern Petroleum Pte Ltd (SEPPL), Singapore Oil Spill Response Centre (SOSRC) and Police Coast Guard (PCG).Such exercises allow agencies to work together and develop communication links between the MPA and other agencies so as to facilitate effective cooperation should oil spills occur in Singapore waters.
During these exercises, personnel from the various agencies took part in role-plays, field and table-top exercises so as to familiarize them with their roles in oil spills clean-up operations. Therefore, we see that various Singapore agencies are actively involved in trainings and practices and are well-trained and prepared to keep up with novel situations involving oil spillages.