Officials hope to improve safety of oil transports in Gulf of Finland

Gulf has become main thoroughfare for Russian oil exports

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Maritime traffic in the Gulf of Finland is constantly on the increase.
      Each day about 500 merchant vessels sail through the shallow and rocky body of water.
      This includes 20 tankers loaded with oil.
      In 2015 the number of large oil tankers sailing the Gulf is expected to rise to 25 a day.
      As the number of vessels increases, the risk of accidents also grows, notes Pekka Laaksonen of the John Nurminen Foundation.
      Adding to the risk of an oil spill is that large tankers have to avoid collision both with other cargo vessels and with the passenger ships that ply in a north-south direction between Helsinki and the Estonian capital Tallinn.
     
Today, Thursday, representatives of the Finnish Transport Agency, the Finnish Transport Safety Agency (TraFi), Neste Oil, and the John Nurminen Foundation will sign a commitment to improving the safety of tanker traffic in the Gulf of Finland.
      The Gulf of Finland has gradually become the main channel of Russian oil exports.
      In 1995 about 20 million tonnes of oil was transported through the Gulf. Last year the figure was 150 million tonnes.
      Shipping in the area has increased nearly to the level that it is in the Straits of Malacca, which has traditionally been considered to be a hazardous area for navigation.
     
The aim is to agree how a new guidance system for two-way traffic, which anticipates possible congestion, can be introduced to maritime security centres, which are responsible for maritime traffic control.
      The system, which has been developed under Laaksonen’s leadership, has already been tested on vessels belonging to Neste Oil.
      “The aim is to significantly reduce the risk of oil accidents. Tanker accidents involve massive amounts of oil, at worst. The largest tankers can contain 150,000 tonnes of crude oil, and coastal tankers can have between 10,000 and 40,000 tonnes. Just 30,000 tonnes would cover the entire surface of the Gulf of Finland in a layer of oil", notes Laaksonen.
      Finland had a near-miss situation in February 2007, when the Greek-registered Propontis hit a submerged rock while carrying 100,000 tons of crude.
      Fortunately the vessel's double hull prevented a major disaster, but it was very close indeed, and the incident concentrated a lot of minds very quickly.
     
If everything works out, a guidance system will be in use in 2012 in all oil vessels sailing in the Gulf of Finland, and in the maritime traffic control centres on the Gulf of Finland.
      Currently, routing plans are made on the bridges of individual ships, but the plans are not reported to anyone on land. Experts say that most of the accidents that take place in the Gulf of Finland are the result of errors committed by ships’ crews.
      In the new systems, ships are to send their routing plans over the Internet to a Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) centre.
      The VTS centre then checks the routing for safety, and sends the ship relevant information about weather, traffic, harbour issues, and other matters, such as broken buoys, and the water levels at the intended destinations.
     
“The aim of all of this is to minimise human error and to make work easier both on the bridge of the ship and in traffic control centres. We will make the system as user-friendly as possible”, Laaksonen emphasises.
      When the tanker safety programme is ready, its owners in Finland will be the Finnish Transport Agency, and similar organisations will own it in Russia and Estonia.
      The system will be freely available for use by ships.
      The VTS centres will have to invest between EUR 200,000 and 300,000 in the development of the system.
      The John Nurminen Foundation has agreed to pay for administrative costs.
     
Negotiations with Russian officials begin in earnest next autumn, when the Finns have more practical experience on exactly how the system works.
      “Fortunately we also have the support of politicians. President Tarja Halonen has discussed the project with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Last week the project was discussed in Lappeenranta, when Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and Prime Minister Putin met”, Laaksonen says.
     
Neste Oil and the John Nurminen Foundation have demonstrated the system to oil companies operating in Russia.
      “The foundation’s chairman Juha Nurminen visited Russia this spring to meet with the top management of Lukoil and Shell Oil. Also there was former Chief of Defence Juhani Kaskeala, who heads the steering group of the Tanker Security Project.
      Finnish Minister of the Environment Paula Lehtomäki (Centre) helped arrange a meeting with Likoil, and the meeting with Shell was arranged through Jorma Ollila, the oil giant’s chairman of the board.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Tanker runs aground in Gulf of Finland - major environmental disaster averted (12.2.2007)
  Baltic Sea Action Summit to convene in Helsinki on Wednesday (8.2.2010)

See also:
  Gulf of Finland feels impact of change in Russia (4.3.2007)
  Transport of Russian oil through Gulf of Finland could double soon (5.3.2006)
  New Russian oil terminal opens in Vysotsk, near Vyborg (18.6.2004)

Links:
  John Nurminen Foundation
  Clean Baltic Sea - Tanker Safety

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