ABSTRACT
For several years institutions concerned with the petroleum industry in Western Europe have been endeavoring to ensure effective cooperation in certain important fields. In one of these, representatives of nine countries have been preparing codes of practice for dealing with oil spills at sea and those which have reached the shore. This paper describes the codes which have been produced.
The codes are intended for the guidance of those people in national bodies, local authorities, industry and elsewhere who may have to undertake clean-up operations. They set out the recommended methods, in order of priority, for six main “location variables.”
1. Open or rough sea (> 1 km from shore)
2. Open sea, close to shore (> 1 km from shore)
3. Estuaries
4. Sheltered, calm waters (including ports and harbors)
5. On shore
6. Ice conditions
The other main variables taken into account are type and quantity of oil spilt. “Oil type” has been subdivided into:
(i) Crude oils which spread on contact with water
(ii) Crude oils which have weathered on the sea
(iii) Water-in-oil emulsions
(iv) Heavy fuel oils
(v) Distillate fuels
(vi) Waxy oils which tend to coagulate into lumps on contact with the sea.
The size of an oil spill has been defined as:
(a) small, if it is less than 10 tons
(b) medium, if it is between 10 and 500 tons
(c) large, if it is greater than 500 tons.
It is felt that our present knowledge is adequate to ensure that, with correct preparation, the task of clean-up may be tackled with confidence of success.