The International Oil Spill Conference (IOSC) is the pre-eminent gathering of oil spill experts from around the world. This biennial Conference hosts more than 1800 persons from more than 50 countries who attend technical and policy presentations, special exhibits and equipment demonstrations. MMS is a member of the IOSC Executive Committee. The Issue Paper Sub-committee of the IOSC conducted a two and half-day workshop in London, UK, from September 21-23, 2004 at the International Maritime Organizations headquarters offices.
The workshop theme is Prevention: What are the Next Challenges? Workshop focused on the promotion of preventive measure applicable in the oil spill response business by critically analyzing:
What do we mean by prevention? To what extent should prevention be considered from the response community point of view?
What has been done to date and what is reasonable to do considering both economics and practicality of the business?
What role can we expect from the governments in decision-making and what can industry do to influence them?
Incentives versus penalties to encourage more preventive action.
Approx. forty invited participants representing an international contingent, government, industry and academia convened under the guidance of Mr. Thomas Liebert to engage in discussions of the current state of oil spill prevention around the world. Plenary and breakout sessions were used. The results from this workshop are intended to improve effectiveness of preventive measures and offer a baseline which improvements can be evaluated over the years.
The workshop was successfully conducted at the IMO in London, UK on September 21-23, 2004. These deliberations are the basis for a panel session at the 2005 IOSC in Miami, Florida on May 17, 2005.