si971.com

There are two types of oil pollution:

a) accidental spills etc.

b) deliberate pollution where for example

• produced water containing small amounts of oil is put into the sea or
• displacement water from temporary oil storage systems is displaced.

Oil Spills

All escapes of petroleum into the sea must be reported to:

• the Department of Trade and Industry and
• the nearest coastguard station Details are given under reporting in this section

Installations (and pipelines) must have an Oil spill Contingency Plan. This will contain actions to be taken in the event of a large spill and policy with respect to the use of dispersants etc.

Discharge of oils used in machinery spaces

For refined oil and oily water discharge from machinery spaces (i.e. not including production oil) all offshore installations are treated as ships of 400 GRT for the purposes of legislation. They are required to be fitted with an oil discharge monitoring and control system, either oily water separating equipment (100 ppm oil content) or oil filtering equipment (15 ppm), and oil residue sludge tanks. A control system is obligatory, incorporating automatic shut down if the oil content of effluent exceeds 100 ppm.

All installations must have either a UK Oil Pollution Prevention Certificate (usually valid for 5 years) or mobiles not registered in the UK can have an International Oil Pollution Prevention Certificate.

An Oil Record Book, Part 1 (Machinery Space Operations) has to be completed

a) when cleaning oil fuel tanks

b) discharging

• cleaning water
• oily residue or
• bilge water from machinery spaces

c) or when sending used machine oils back onshore

Discharge of oils produced or used operationally

The discharge of certain oils (crude, fuel, lubricating and diesel) and from oil based drilling fluids in addition to the discharge of produced and drainage water is controlled.

Generally it is prohibited to discharge any oil or oily mixture, with an oil content greater than 15 ppm, into the sea within 12 miles from the coast.

Exceptions are:

• when, despite having taken all reasonable precautions equipment becomes damaged
• in the interests of safety
• approved discharges e.g. dispersants

Reporting Oil Spills

There is a proforma annexed to PON 1 for faxes

Reporting requirements are:
The nearest coastguard station - telephone immediately and confirm by fax/telex.

Department of Trade and Industry Fax all spills - 01224 254019 Over 25 tonnes telephone 01224 254024 or 254 050 or 721592 or 707556 Over 1 tonne within 25 miles of coast telephone as above

Nature Conservancy Agencies
As for DTI Fax 01224 621488 Telephone 01224 655701 or 0133 823165