New Zealand oil spill response strategy - Maritime New Zealand

All vessels that meet the criteria specified by the MARPOL 73/78 convention (as reflected in Part 130A)
are required to have a shipboard oil pollution emergency plan (SOPEP), approved and audited by
Maritime New Zealand or the appropriate maritime authority for foreign flagged vessels.
The owner of an oil transfer site is required to ensure that an approved oil spill contingency plan has
been produced (either by themselves or their tenants or lessees). The regional council, acting under a
delegation from the Director, will be responsible for approving and auditing the contingency plans for
oil transfer sites.
The owner of an offshore installation (or their tenants or lessees) is required to produce a marine oil
spill contingency plan. In addition, discharge management plans are to incorporate emergency
response provisions for oil spills. Both contingency plans and discharge management plans are
approved and audited by Maritime New Zealand. Where there are a number of related structures in a
limited and defined geographic area, such as a large hydrocarbon field, the same contingency plan
under the emergency response provisions may be shared if appropriate.
If a spill from a Tier 1 site cannot be contained and recovered by the spiller, it must escalate to the
next appropriate Tier.
Tier 2
Tier 2 response is the responsibility of regional councils and those unitary authorities acting as
regional councils under the Act. These agencies must maintain the regional contingency plan for their
region.
Within their regions, these councils will respond to marine oil spills that exceed the clean-up capability
of Tier 1 (some regions have instigated a policy whereby a Tier 1 incident automatically escalates to
Tier 2 if oil enters waters in the public domain). They will also respond to those spills for which no
responsible party can be identified. Maritime New Zealand will provide regional councils with sufficient
equipment, training and opportunities to exercise their expertise in order to competently undertake this
role.
Regional council Tier 2 personnel and resources also play a fundamental role in Tier 3 responses. In
the event of a significant incident that escalates to Tier 3, the Tier 2 responders maintain the response
during the transition phase, and still form an integral and vital part of clean-up activities at the Tier 3
level.
Each regional council is required to produce, maintain and implement a regional marine oil spill
contingency plan for their Territorial Sea (out to 12 nautical miles). Maritime New Zealand will approve
and audit these regional plans. The regional contingency planning process should also include prespill
segmentation of the region’s coastline by suitable trained assessors, to identify homogenous
segments and any associated response issues in advance of an incident.
An opportunity now exists for most regional councils to link their contingency planning process to the
risk assessments that should be undertaken every three years under the New Zealand Port and
Harbour Marine Safety Code 2004. The Code, though voluntary in nature, stipulates that the region
should undertake a risk assessment for all harbours and areas of compulsory pilotage within their
jurisdiction. Risk assessment should form the basis and be a fundamental driver of contingency
planning.
The relationship between Tier 2 & 3 plans has undergone a significant evolution since the previous
strategy in 2000. The structure of the plans has been redefined, so national and regional plans will
contain uniform operational procedures. Regional Tier 2 plans will include specific local information in
appropriate annexes. As Maritime New Zealand maintains the generic front end of the plan, regional
councils can concentrate their resources on identifying and prioritising sensitive areas and local
response issues.
During an incident, if a spiller cannot be identified or if a spill is beyond the capability of the Tier 1 site
to respond, the ROSC will assume responsibility for the clean-up operation within their region directly.
The ROSC shall decide whether or not it is appropriate for any action to be taken in response to that
marine oil spill. According to section 303 of the Maritime Transport Act, the principal objective of the
ROSC in taking any such action will be to prevent further pollution from the marine oil spill, and to
contain and clean up the oil spill in accordance with the relevant regional marine oil spill contingency
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