WQHN Oil Spill Conference 2022 
In Person and Livestreamed from WA (AWST) 
in person venue change 

WA in-person topics and livestreamed internationally 

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Crisis and Incident Management 
Presented by; 

Zalina Sungip, Petroleum Industry of Malaysia Mutual Aid Group

 

Abstract and presentation: 

In managing oil spill response preparedness during an oil spill incident, Malaysia Oil & Gas operators, have developed their own Emergency Response Plan (ERP). The ERP are divided into 3 tiers: Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. Tier 1, the operator internal capabilities; Tier 2, the operator required external support and Tier 3, the operator required intervention from government agencies.

Using Malaysia Oil Spill Contingency Plan (MOSCoP) developed by Department of Environment (DoE) as the main reference, an alignment between the government and industry response tiers were made to identify demarcation between government and industry. However, within the industry’s responsibilities, there are responsibilities beyond the industry capabilities and require government intervention to meet the 72 hours windows of opportunity to minimize further detrimental impact from an oil spill. A series of workshop had been conducted between industry and the relevant government agencies in getting solution during this critical window.

A wide range of topics were discussed including mobilization of spill response equipment and personnel from within and outside Malaysia, utilization of government assets to aid in response strategies such as aerial surveillance and aerial dispersant operations and to achieve the goals during times of pandemic. The outcome of the workshops will be furthered enhance the MOSCoP through standard operating procedures (SOPs) that will be used as a reference by both the government and industry in the event of an oil spill incident especially location with ESI 10 and high potential for transboundary spill such as Straits of Malacca

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The State Hazard Plan : Maritime Environmental Emergencies 
Presented by Glen McDermott 
Maritime Environmental Emergency Response
Dept of Transport WA  

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This presentation will provide an awareness of the State Hazard Plan: Maritime Environmental Emergencies, and thus the overall emergency management arrangements in WA as they pertain to Marine Oil Pollution and the prevention of, preparedness for, response to and recovery from that hazard. It will also cover the arrangements laid out in key guidance notes as they relate to collaborative response arrangements between government, industry, port authorities and port facility operators. Arrangements outlined in the WA Oiled Wildlife Response Plan will also be addressed and how they support Oil Spill Response overall.

In addition to building an awareness of arrangements for the management of Oil Spills in WA State Waters, this presentation will also examine some of the friction points in current arrangements, and WA DoT’s ‘integrated capability’ approach as a Hazard Management Agency, driven by the principles of ‘assistance’, ‘collaboration’ and ‘mitigation’. This presentation will be beneficial to any stakeholder that has a vested interest in or obligations relating to effective Marine Oil Pollution hazard management and Oil Spill incidents within or possibly impacting WA State Waters.

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Hazmat Considerations for Oil Response

Dr Jimmy Seow 

Director Environ Pty Ltd 

Marine oil spill response will encounter all sorts of risks, dangers and challengers during response and recovery phase of which certainly oil spills Hazmat, hazard and health and safety issues need to be taken into serious consideration.
Oil spills may it be fresh crude or fuel oil do emit toxic fumes such as aromatic hydrocarbons e.g. PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon) – benzene, toluene, xylene, organic compounds contain nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur, trace amounts of metals such as iron, nickel, copper and vanadium, and mercury and many oil reservoirs contain live bacteria.
Furthermore crude and fuel oil are flammable. Physical hazards are known to present risks to responders and clean up crew. Responders and clean-up crew therefore need to know about those Hazmat and hazards and also know to detect air toxics and select appropriate PPE to reduce that risks and danger.​

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Oil Spill response :

Differences between incidents of Grounded MV Benita in Mauritius and MV Wakashio, and managing future risks. Recovery and Community Engagement challenges during Covid-19

Presented by Wayne O Brien 

Director and Marine Engineer : Resilient Solutions

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Wayne will discuss the 2 incidents and the challenges of COVID-19, future risks and how we can address them. Specifically, grounded incidents between MV Benita and Mv Wakashio in Mauritius and integrating communities to reduce personnel requirements and external SME support.

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Assessing the impact of hydrocarbon releases on tropical reef species

Presented by Dr Andrew Negri

Principal Research Scientist

Sustainable Coastal Ecosystems and Industries in Tropical Australia

Australia Institute of Marine Science

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This presentation will discuss: 

 

1. Hydrocarbons and coral reefs

2. Introduce spill modelling and ecotoxicology

3. Coral ecotoxicology examples

4. Integrating toxicity data with models to improve risk assessments

 

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Oil spills and light: A potent mix in tropical waters

Presented by Mikaela Nordborg

College of Science & Engineering

James Cook University | AIMS@JCU |Australian Institute of Marine Science

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Abstract

Oil pollution remains a significant local threat to tropical coral reefs, with several spills occurring on or near reefs in recent years. Despite the often close proximity of tropical reefs to shipping lanes, harbours and extraction facilities, the sensitivity of coral reef taxa to oil exposure remains understudied, including for reef-building corals. Additionally, environmental conditions typical of tropical shallow-water reefs, in particular ultraviolet radiation (UV), have previously been shown to increase oil toxicity, but are generally not accounted for in tropical oil spill risk assessments. Here I will: (i) introduce the tropical environmental conditions that are likely to affect oil toxicity during spills in Australian marine environments; (ii) summarise the outcomes of a comprehensive series of experiments designed to assess the sensitivity of a reef-building coral to oil exposure across coral life stages and (iii) further clarify the impacts of UV co-exposure on oil toxicity towards tropical corals. These results are also placed in the context of likely UV exposures in Australian marine ecosystems and the implications for oil spill risk assessments in tropical reef environments

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A machine learning approach for oil spills detection in the Great Barrier Reef using Sentinel-1 SAR 

Presented by David BLONDEAU-PATISSIER

Aquatic Remote Sensing Team

Coastal Development and Management

CSIRO 

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Abstract:  
The timely detection of oil floating on the ocean’s surface, particularly in protected marine parks such as the Great Barrier Reef, is critical for the monitoring and protection of coastal environments. Presence of oil is best detected from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite sensors, which provide global imagery at medium spatial resolution (20 m), day or night and in any weather condition. Oil floating on the ocean’s surface, whether oil spills (anthropogenic sources), oil slicks (naturally occurring) or look-alikes (caused by the interaction of prevailing wind and ocean currents for instance), has a dark signature which contrasts with the surrounding waters that appear brighter in grayscale SAR images. To distinguish oil spills from look-alikes in Sentinel-1 SAR imagery, a convolutional neural network-based deep learning classifier was trained on a large satellite dataset of past oil spill events around the world, including imagery from the Great Barrier Reef.

 

The workflow methodology of our semi-automated detection system, which is currently operational, and the results obtained when applied to SAR imagery of the Great Barrier Reef will be presented.  
David Blondeau-Patissier1, Thomas Schroeder1, Gopika Suresh2, Zhibin Li3, Foivos Diakogiannis4, Weihao Li5, Lars Petersson5, Paul Irving6, Christian Witte7, Andy Steven1 
1 Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Oceans and Atmosphere, Brisbane 
2 Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie, Germany 

3,CSIRO Health and Biosecurity, Brisbane 
4 University of Western Australia, Perth 
5 CSIRO Data61, Canberra 
6 Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), Canberra 
7 Department of Environment and Science (DES), Brisbane 

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Maritime Environmental Emergencies: Oil Behaviour at sea and tools for assessing risk and response options. 

Presented by Nigel Holmes

Principal Advisor Incident Management for the Queensland Dept of Environment and Science

 

This presentation will cover; 

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-  Australia’s coastal sensitivities.
-  Oil compositions and effects.
-  To disperse or not to disperse.
-  Oil weathering and fate at sea and on the shoreline.
-  Net Environmental Benefit Analyses for assessing options.
-  The Environmental Advisor’s role in Incident Control.

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