Increased oil spill preparedness in ice-filled waters

The Norwegian Coastal Administration (NCA) has now invested in three new oil containment booms for use in ice-filled waters. One of the booms will be mounted on the coast guard vessel KV Svalbard, while the other two will be stored in the NCA’s oil spill preparedness depots in Vadsø and Horten.

The head of the NCA’s Centre for Emergency Preparedness, Helge Munkås Andersen, recently signed a contract with Sales and Project Manager Henrik Jensen from the Danish firm DESMI.

“Delivery is scheduled for around August or September, and training the crew on board the ship will be an essential part of this delivery,” says Munkås Andersen.

Durable and robust

When it is in place in autumn 2017, the enhanced equipment will become an important resource for oil spill preparedness in the maritime areas around Svalbard, in the Varangerfjord in Northern Norway, and in the Oslofjord.

“The new booms use a more robust fabric that withstands tougher climates better than other materials the NCA uses in its ordinary booms,” explains Senior Engineer Magne Berg, who is following up the delivery for the NCA, from tender to mounting and training. The new containment booms weigh nearly twice as much as similar booms without the same enhanced fabric, something that also indicates just how robust the new booms are.

Deployment from land in Vadsø and Horten

“Oil containment booms are at the outset meant to be on board ships as a work platform for deployment, retrieval, and storage,” Berg explains. “In addition, the booms can be used without support from a ship and be deployed from a pier or similar site.” It is the latter option that will be the practice at the depots in Vadsø and Horten, while the NCA depot in Svalbard will have access to KV Svalbard’s new containment boom when it is not on board.

Important step for oil spill preparedness in the Arctic

The commanding officer on board the KV Svalbard, Commander Endre Barane, appreciates the NCA’s focus on oil spill preparedness in the High North and the Arctic.

“By having larger and more robust oil containment booms on board, the Coast Guard will be able to respond to oil spills in all the territorial waters around Svalbard,” Barane says. “When you consider the increased traffic of vessels around all of Svalbard during the summer half of the year, as well as the obligations Norway has through our participation in international forums such as the Arctic Coast Guard Forum, this is an important and appropriate step within oil spill preparedness in the Arctic. The new, durable booms that the NCA has acquired will be a vital component here.”

Barane also praises the cooperation between the NCA’s Department for Emergency Preparedness and the Norwegian Coast Guard, which has been ongoing since the early 1990s.

Relevant links

• Overview of our national preparedness resources
• The National Preparedness Plan, which shows how national preparedness in Norway is organized, with a distribution of responsibilities and roles 
• A video showing how the Norwegian Coastal Administration maintains national preparedness against acute pollution
• A pictorial presentation of the Svalbard exercise

SITE INSPECTION ON KV SVALBARD: Chief Engineer KV Svalbard Ronn Henry Åsberg, Commanding Officer KV Svalbard Endre Barane, Senior Adviser Trond Hjort-Larsen, Senior Engineer Magne Berg.