Unprepared!

October 8th, 2006 by Site Administrator

IN A COUNTRY of about 7,100 islands, where sea transport of industrial raw materials is common with up to 200 vessels plying different routes at any one time, accidents are nothing new. But previous ones were of a smaller and more manageable scale. Obviously, Petron and the Philippine Coast Guard were not prepared for an oil spill as big as the one in Guimaras.

The Coast Guard has a National Marine Pollution Control Contingency Plan which calls for a tiered response to oil spills. For a Tier 1 spill, the spiller is required to take full responsibility for the clean-up using its own resources. Petron has equipment for an oil spill of this scale because this is only what the law requires.

But Guimaras is a Tier 3 oil spill because of the volume involved and the extent of its potential damage to marine life. The contingency plan calls for the Coast Guard to take charge of coordinating efforts to address it.

The Coast Guard has limited resources since its equipment stockpile in Manila was destroyed in a fire in 1992. It is dependent on regional and bilateral agreements on oil spill response. The skimmers, booms, storage tanks, vessel-based dispersant sprayers, transfer pumps, among others, that it is using for the clean-up operations are from the Japanese transport ministry through a scheme called “Oil Spill Preparedness and Response in Asia.”

The only ones in the country who have access to additional and more suitable equipment are Petron’s competitors, Shell and Caltex. The two have established a cooperative called Waterborne Industry Oil Spill Equipment (WISE) which has containment and recovery equipment, storage facilities, and pressure cleaners on their board tugs.

Prior to the Guimaras disaster, Petron, for unclear reasons, was not a member of WISE. Petron, however, has been citing WISE as the source of most of its equipment for the ongoing clean-up.

This was perhaps why crisis management at the onset was concentrated on knocking on the doors of competitors. Thus, Petron was unable to present its plans and activities immediately after the oil spill. A deadly oversight. Newsbreak