Governor of Svalbard wants ban on heavy fuel oil
The Norwegian Governor of Svalbard wants a ban on the use and carriage of heavy fuel oil on ships around the archipelago.
- Svalbard does not have the equipment to handle any ecological disasters like a large-scaled oil spill, Per Sefland says to Svalbardposten. – It is problematic to expand the existing stand-by capacities and therefore we must concentrate on preventing ecological catastrophes before they happen, he says.
One of the measures Sefland suggests is to ban the use of heavy oil in the whole of the Svalbard area. The use of heavy oil is banned at two natural reserves on the eastern side of the archipelago, and it has been suggested to expand the ban to yet another three reserves on the western side. Governor Sefland is skeptical to applying restrictions to only certain areas.
If a serious accident was to happen in the waters outside Svalbard, it could take as much as two days for personnel and equipment to arrive from the mainland. Having personnel cleaning the shores after an accident is not practical on Svalbard, Sefland explains.
In a short period of time Norway has experienced two serious ship accidents in its waters. In May the Russian freezer ship “Petrozavodsk” ran aground by the coast of the Bear Island, Barents Sea, and in July the Panama-registered cargo ship “Full City” caused an ecological disaster when it grounded outside Langesund in Southern Norway.
The International Maritime Organization is expected to approve a permanent ban on the use and carriage of heavy fuel oil on ships operating in Antarctic waters at its meeting in March 2010,
