OPRC-HNS TG8 and MEPC 58 Meetings
IPIECA representatives attended the eighth session of the OPRC-HNS Technical Group (TG8) held from 29 September - 3 October, and the fifty-eighth session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 58) held from 6-10 October. IPIECA, on behalf of the oil and gas industry, will continue to contribute to tools and guidance designed to assist countries to effectively implement the Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Cooperation (OPRC) Convention.

The Chairman of MEPC 58 recognised IPIECA in his closing statement for the work done on oil spill preparedness and cited this as a good example of collaboration between IMO and industry.

IPIECA Participation at OPRC-HNS TG7
The 7th meeting of the OPRC-HNS Technical Group took place from 25-28 March, at the headquarters of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in Southampton, UK, and IPIECA was invited to participate as an observer. The reports from the OPRC-HNS TG7 meeting and from the 57TH session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 57) meeting may be accessed via the links below:

OPRC-HNS TG7 meeting report (Word, 406KB)
MEPC 57 meeting report (Word, 52KB)

IPIECA Participation at OPRC-HNS TG6 and MEPC 56
The 6th meeting of the OPRC-HNS Technical Group took place from 2-6 July, at the headquarters of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in Southampton, UK, and IPIECA was invited to participate in this meeting as an observer.

An update was given at the meeting on progress made with the Risk Evaluation and Preparedness Assessment manual by the Coordinator of the correspondence group in charge of producing the manual. A splinter group was formed during the week to develop a schedule for the completion of a final draft of the manual that would be ready to be reviewed in advance to OPRC-HNS TG7, early in 2008. Please use the link below to access the report of the Splinter Group.

The 4th IMO R & D Forum will be held in conjunction with Interspill 2009 in Marseille. The theme of the forum is HNS in the Marine Environment. A brainstorming exercise was held during the week of TG6 to discuss the way forward for the group, taking into account the outstanding gaps and emerging topics related to oil pollution and the recent entry into force of the OPRC-HNS Protocol. For more information on this session, please click on the link below.

IPIECA volunteered to provide support in the following areas:

• Production of a paper which outlines learnings from working in developing countries (e.g. GI WACAF, East Asia) to better understand what the needs are in these areas
• Conduct literature review on sunken oil assessment and removal techniques
• Incident Command System response structures
• Fast water response
• In situ burning
• Revision of standard matrix (decision support tool) based on the results of the Mediterranean Waste Management Study to be carried out by REMPEC through the Mediterranean Technical Working Group