MPA in spill payout schedule deal

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

28 Sep 2007

Singapore has become the first country to develop an agreed schedule with the International Tanker Pollution Federation Ltd (I-TOPF) to speed up payment of compensation for dealing with oil spills. The agreement was announced yesterday by Minister of State for Finance and Transport Lim Hwee Hua at the opening ceremony of the International Chemical & Oil Pollution Conference and Exhibition. She noted that while the private sector had often responded to help the government in dealing with oil spills, obtaining compensation could involve a long process. She said: 'For example, oil and chemical spill response companies such as the Singapore Oil Spill Response Centre and East Asia Response Ltd provide experienced spill management teams and equipment such as containment booms, skimmers and dispersant spray systems.  'Companies such as PSA Marine, ExxonMobil and Shell also possess spill control equipment that adds to our incident response arsenal. These industry partners are an integral part of Singapore's oil response capability and play a valuable role. 'Though this arrangement has worked very well, I understand that response agencies and resources owners can sometimes find that obtaining compensation for services and equipment contributed can be a protracted affair, especially when there are disagreements on rates.' Recognising this, the Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has worked with I-TOPF to come up with an agreed schedule of rates for oil response resources provided by the MPA and its supporting response agencies and resource owners. 'P&I Clubs and the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund, which provide the compensation, rely on I-TOPF to assess claims. Hence, with the framework of pre-agreed rates in place through this MOU with I-TOPF, spill response agencies and resource owners can look forward to fair and timely compensation when they deploy their craft and equipment to assist in clean-up operations,' Ms Lim said.