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| Spill Management Exercise |
| C V Subba Rao |
| Sanmar Shipping hosted the 2001 Spill Management
Team (SMT) Table Top Exercise (TTX) on September 10th and 11th
conducted by Chris Gregory, General Manager of ECM/Hudson Maritime
Services of USA, representing some of the Indian ship owners
as Qualified Individual (QI). The US Coast Guard regulations
for California State require such Oil Spill Contingency Exercises,
as part of the US Government’s Oil Pollution Act, 1990 to be
conducted in Ship Owner’s offices across the world by authorized
representatives located in the US. The exercise was held at
Sanmar’s Corporate Office and the participants included senior
representatives of companies such as Varun Shipping, Chowgule
Steamships of Mumbai, India Steamship Company of Calcutta and
India Cements Ltd. (Shipping Division) of Chennai, besides Sanmar
Shipping. |
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| Chris Gregory, General Manager, ECM/Hudson Maritime
Services of USA, with representatives from various shipping
companies. |
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| One of the exercises featured a mock ship flying
the Indian flag at the New York harbour, spilling oil due to an accident.
The activity considered issues such as environmental damage, media
management, public perception, US legislations, etc., and included
telephone calls and faxes relayed to various agencies in the US, ranging
from the Coast Guard, the media (including print and TV Networks),
the environmentalists, etc., using ISD lines located in the conference
room, with the delegates playing the role of the ship owner. The entire
exercise took place from 0030 hrs till 0330 hrs New York time. |
| Typically, an improper response could cost an owner
up to billions of dollars, and hence the exercise was seen as highly
informative and combative, as it was simulated to a “Real Life” situation
for a ship owning company located in India. All the participants were
happy to have attended such an informative and educative programme.
A sumptuous lunch was organized in the Executive Dining Room of the
Sanmar Corporate Office for all the delegates on both the days. |
| (The author is Assistant Vice President-Technical,
Sanmar Shipping Limited). |
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