A symposium marking the 20 year anniversary of the International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation (OPRC) is being held in Tokyo, Japan (28-29 January). Under the theme “Maintaining Future Effective Preparedness against Oil Spills”, industry experts are presenting the latest technologies available to fight major oil spills.

The year of 2016 marks 20 years since the OPRC Convention came into force and also the Petroleum Association of Japans held its first Oil Spill Symposium in 1995. Every year the Symposium, or Workshop in alternate years, attempts to focus on topics which are relevant to the industry and to the Major Oil Spill Response Programme through presentations by professionals and industry experts with the latest information about large spill incidents, constant efforts against them and new technologies, all in recovering devices & response techniques and in creating and maintaining human networks, all with the aim to help properly prepare for subsequent large spill incidents.
This past year the current oversupply of crude oil in the market has caused a dramatic downturn in the oil price and as a consequence, most Companies and Governments are cutting their budgets and maximizing their available resources in all departments including Oil Spill Response. While Oil Spill Response Preparedness and the preservation of the marine environment remains a top priority for all organisations, this Symposium intends to show the current situation in the industry and the efforts to maintain an appropriate level of readiness.