Oil Spill Prevention, Preparedness and Response in the Arctic Kemi, March 24, 2015 Ole Kristian Bjerkemo, EPPR Chair

Outline • About Arctic Council – EPPR Working Group • Arctic Council’s work on oil spill prevention • Agreement on Cooperation on Marine Oil Pollution Preparedness and Response in the Arctic (MOSPA) • Relevant EPPR projects • Conclusions

Arctic Council The Arctic States Permanent Participants (PP’s) Observers

Arctic Council Arctic Council Secretariat Tromsø, Norway

Ministerial meeting SAO-meeting

Task Forces

EPPR’s mandate • The mandate of the EPPR working group is to address the prevention, preparedness, and response to environmental emergencies in the Arctic that result from human activities • Oil and radionuclides – Shipping – Oil and gas exploration and production – Land based activities

• Search and Rescue (SAR)

Prevention of oil pollution • Task from the 2011 Ministerial meeting: – EPPR in cooperation with other working groups: Develop recommendations and/or best practices in the prevention of marine oil pollution….

Photo: Norwegian 330 Sq Photo: Harald Pettersen, Statoil

Photo: Harald Pettersen, Statoil

EPPR Report on Prevention • Two reports – Technical report prepared by DnV – Summary report with recommendations

• Recommendations – – – – – –

Improve ice management and detection of hazardous sea ice Expand investigation into the use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) to monitor oil spills and ice conditions Catalog all applicable oil and gas standards for Arctic activities and identify differences in the standards Undertake a Circumpolar Marine Environment Risk Analysis (CMERA) Undertake oil spill prevention research and enhance regulatory cooperation (e.g. near-miss database) Conduct an analysis of existing and emerging shipping lanes and identify gaps in infrastructure and mapping, and implement appropriate measures

Kiruna Declaration 2013 “… Decide to establish a Task Force to develop an Arctic Council action plan or other arrangement on oil pollution prevention, and to present the outcomes of its work and any recommendations for further action at the next Ministerial meeting in 2015,…”.

Arctic Council – Task Force on Oil Pollution Prevention (2013-2015) • 2013 Kiruna Declaration: Task Force (TF) to develop an Arctic Council action plan or other arrangement on oil pollution prevention • TF co-chaired by Russia and Norway • 5 meetings: Oslo, Reykjavik, Ottawa, Nuuk and Helsinki • Focus areas: Oil & gas and shipping • Framework Plan

Current Oil Spill Agreements in the Arctic Canada-US

US-Russia

CanadaGreenland

Norway-Russia Finland-Russia Copenhagen Agreement: Norway, Sweden Finland, Iceland, Denmark inc. Greenland and Faroe Island

HELCOM (Denmark, Estonia, the European Community, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden.

Agreement on Arctic Marine Oil Pollution Preparedness and Response • Signed in May 2013 • Objective: to strengthen cooperation, coordination and mutual assistance among the Parties on oil pollution preparedness and response in the Arctic in order to protect the marine environment from pollution by oil

Appendixes to the Agreement • APPENDIX I Competent National Authorities • APPENDIX II National 24-hour Operational Contact Points • APPENDIX III Authorities Entitled to Request Assistance or to Decide to Render Assistance Requested • APPENDIX IV Operational Guidelines (OG) – Non-binding – The Guidelines address procedures for notification and request for assistance, command and control in response operations, joint training and exercises, administrative issues and other recommended measures to facilitate an effective cooperative oil pollution incident response. – EPPR is responsible to maintain the OG and to develop reports on lessons learnt from exercises.

Preparing for Response Through Exercises The first Exercise related to the Agreement on Cooperation on Marine Oil Pollution Preparedness and Response (MOSPA) in the Arctic May – June 2014

Purpose: Execute selected components of the Operational Guidelines in collaboration with Arctic States Concept drivers: Introduce a new response procedure; and, develop familiarity between national competent authorities (in the execution of requests for assistance) Administration: Canada, as Host Nation, coordinated the overall exercise, evaluations and final report. The report will be tabled with the Arctic Council.

Some EPPR projects on oil pollution preparedness and response • IMO/EPPR Guide to Oil Spill Response in Ice and Snow Conditions (EPPR) • Arctic ERMA (Environmental Response Management Application) • Circumpolar Arctic Oil Spill Response Gap Analysis (EPPR) • Arctic Spill Response Database • Prevention Preparedness and Response in Small Communities

Conclusions • Prevention must have the highest priority • Agreement on Arctic Marine Oil Pollution Preparedness and Response (MOSPA) signed in May 2013 will facilitate future cooperation • Training and exercises are of great importance • EPPR strives for increased knowledge about how to handle emergencies in the Arctic.

Thank you for your attention!

Photo: Rune Bergstrøm