Report prepared for the European Maritime Safety Agency under Contract Number 11/EMSA/OP/O7/2011 by Environmental Protection Engineering SA. Photo credit: www.fotovanleeuwen.com , courtesy www.odfjell.com. Study on discharge facilities for oil recovered at sea Executive Summary This report is the main deliverable of the project “Study on discharge facilities for oil recovered at sea – Geographical distribution, technical challenges, solutions and alternatives related to the discharge of oil recovered at sea by specialised vessels, following a large oil spill in Europe” (EMSA OP/07/2011), commissioned by EMSA. The objective of the project, as determined in its tender specifications, was to provide EMSA with a study on available facilities to receive oil recovered at sea by the Agency’s specialised response vessels following a large oil spill, The discharge of oil to these facilities will allow EMSA’s vessels to maximise their time spent in oil recovery operations. The treatment and final disposal of recovered oil were out of the scope of the project. A number of 35 facilities (out of 495 initially contacted from which only 67 replied) were assessed to be suitable to accommodate EMSA’s vessels and receive recovered oil providing at least a capacity of 1,000 m3 that might be readily available for the reception of recovered oil immediately or after a short notice. An inventory of facility-specific Technical and Operational Envelopes that has been incorporated in the Annex II of the report, provides information on a range of issues including contact details of the facility, its immediate and long-term capacity, the restrictions on the quality and quantity of oil, as well as operational details relating to the berthing of incoming vessels and the conduct of discharging operations. The data collected were analysed in depth enabling the identification of the technical limitations of the discharge facilities. The technical limitations that might compromise the discharge of oil recovered by EMSA’s vessels relate to: a) the quality of recovered oil, particularly its viscosity, the presence of debris and water-in-oil emulsions, and b) the berthing and discharging operations of EMSA’s vessels, in particular the suitability of berths and jetties, the connection of vessels’ manifolds to the facility’s cargo arms/receiving piping and various, operational requirements such as the inerting of cargo tanks, etc. Engineering solutions aimed at overcoming the oil-related restrictions were proposed taking into account that they must be safe for the operating personnel onboard the EMSA’s vessels, proven, commercially available, and feasible for applying onboard EMSA’s vessels. Each one of these technologies has its own benefits and constraints when considered relative to the problem dealt with. In addition, alternative solutions, such as ship-to-ship transfer, were proposed to deal with the constraints connected to operational issues of EMSA’s vessels when discharge of recovered oil is to take place. A complete GIS analysis with regards to the identified facilities and their range of operation is included in this report. In particular, it covers the geographical distribution of the facilities that responded positively to the questionnaire, those that responded with a certain storage capacity but without meeting the threshold of 1,000 m3 of immediate capacity, the remaining facilities from the study conducted by EMSA in 2007, and the EMSA Stand-by Oil Spill Response vessels. Moreover, a set of scenarios were examined to determine whether the European waters are adequately covered in terms of delivering the oil recovered at sea. In all scenarios (i.e. oil spills of 1,000, 10,000, and 40,000 m3 in European waters) the area off the coast of Iceland, off the west coasts of Norway and part off the northern coasts of Turkey are not covered by the identified facilities. As the size of the studied spills increases more areas are left uncovered, e.g. the gulf of Biscay, the Mediterranean Sea, and the North Sea. 3 European Maritime Safety Agency TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................ 3 1 INTRODUCTION - OBJECTIVES .............................................................................. 9 2 IDENTIFICATION OF POTENTIAL FACILITIES TO RECEIVE OIL RECOVERED AT SEA DURING SPILL RESPONSE OPERATIONS INVOLVING EMSA’S CONTRACTED OIL SPILL RESPONSE VESSELS ................................................................................................ 10 2.1 METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................... 10 2.2 CRITERIA USED IN SEARCHING GISIS ......................................................... 10 2.3 DEVELOPMENT OF FACILITY/VESSEL INTERFACE QUESTIONNAIRE .................. 11 2.4 INVENTORY OF FACILITIES TO BE CONTACTED ............................................. 11 2.5 FACILITIES THAT MIGHT RECEIVE OIL RECOVERED FROM SPILL RESPONSE OPERATIONS .................................................................................................... 12 2.6 PRESENTATION OF THE RESULTS ................................................................ 14 2.6.1 Baltic Sea....................................................................................... 14 2.6.2 North Sea ...................................................................................... 16 2.6.3 Atlantic Region ............................................................................... 18 2.6.4 Mediterranean Sea .......................................................................... 20 2.6.5 Black Sea ....................................................................................... 23 2.7 OVERVIEW OF THE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS FOR EACH FACILITY ................... 25 3 ANALYSIS OF TECHNICAL LIMITATIONS OF DISCHARGE FACILITIES AND ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS FOR EMSA’S VESSELS ............................................................................ 32 3.1 REGION-BASED TECHNICAL LIMITATIONS .................................................... 32 3.1.1 Baltic Sea....................................................................................... 32 3.1.2 North Sea ...................................................................................... 34 3.1.3 Atlantic Region ............................................................................... 36 3.1.4 Western Mediterranean Sea.............................................................. 40 3.1.5 Central Mediterranean Sea ............................................................... 42 3.1.6 Eastern Mediterranean Sea .............................................................. 45 3.1.7 Black Sea ....................................................................................... 47 3.2 ANALYSIS OF LIMITATIONS ........................................................................ 49 3.2.1 Introduction ................................................................................... 49 3.2.2 Debris ........................................................................................... 49 3.2.3 Viscosity ........................................................................................ 50 3.2.4 Presence of water-in-oil emulsions .................................................... 50 3.2.5 Berthing......................................................................................... 51 3.3 ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THE QUALITY OF RECOVERED OIL 52 3.3.1 Removal of debris ........................................................................... 52 3.3.2 Debris screening capability of oil recovery systems on EMSA’s vessels ... 54 3.3.3 Water-in-oil emulsions and viscosity .................................................. 68 3.3.4 References and additional resources .................................................. 77 4 Study on discharge facilities for oil recovered at sea 3.4 ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS ASSOCIATED TO THE OPERATIONS OF EMSA’S VESSELS .......................................................................................................... 79 3.4.1 Inerting of cargo tanks .................................................................... 79 3.4.2 Cargo manifold reducers .................................................................. 83 3.4.3 The prospect of transferring oil to another tanker................................ 85 3.4.4 Conclusions .................................................................................... 88 3.4.5 References and additional resources .................................................. 88 4 ASSESSMENT OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL COVERAGE OF ONSHORE DISCHARGE FACILITIES AND EMSA’S VESSELS ............................................................................. 90 4.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 90 4.2 DESCRIPTION OF THE LAYERS THAT WERE CONSTRUCTED WITHIN THE GIS PLATFORM ........................................................................................................ 90 4.3 FORMATION OF POTENTIAL SCENARIOS ....................................................... 91 4.4 RESULTS .................................................................................................. 92 4.5 MULTI - CRITERIA ANALYSIS ..................................................................... 106 5 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................. 110 6 ANNEX I: FACILITY