IMO's commitment to supporting regional mechanisms dealing with oil spills in the Pacific Islands was strengthened through delivery of a regional workshop which included the introduction of the RETOS tool for assessing levels of oil spill preparedness in Brisbane, Australia (15-17 September).
The RETOS tool to Evaluate Oil Spill Management Capabilities is used to assess and analysis the level of oil spill response and planning preparedness.
IMO, together with SPREP, the South Pacific regional environment programme, delivered the in-person workshop back-to-back with SPILLCON 2023. The workshop introduced countries under the PACPLAN Resilience Project (2022-2025) to fundamental aspects of the OPRC convention and oil spill preparedness as well as use of RETOS l. Twelve participants from the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tuvalu and Vanuatu attended the workshop. Other stakeholders from the region participated from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the Australian Marine Oil Spill Centre (AMOSC), Maritime New Zealand, Transport Canada, the United States Coast Guard, the United States Aid Department, Oil Spill Response Limited ITOPF and the Major Projects Foundation (concerned with historic wrecks containing oil), and further enhanced the workshop by providing insights into oil spill response as well as to align efforts to support the region.
The workshop was delivered through IMO's Integrated Technical Cooperation Programme (ITCP) with financial support provided by Australia through the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.
