Petroleum Association of Japan (PAJ) started the implementation of major oil spill response (OSR) programme in 1991 and has been stockpiling and lending oil removal materials and equipment since. In this international symposium, I would like to give a summary of the association's operations and present situation, introducing examples of the lent equipment for the NAKHODKA incident which occurred at the beginning of this year and the SEA PRINCE incident which occurred 2 years ago.
Since PAJ is participating in the International Symposium on Marine Oil Spill Response from Japan's oil industry's position, first, I would like to introduce the overall trade flow of oil to Japan from the world.
In 1996, there was a little over 280 million t of oil imported to Japan, which is 15% of the total amount of worldwide trade. As a single country, Japan is the second largest importer of oil in the world after USA. 74% of 280 million t, or 210 million t of oil is transferred from the Middle East region (Table 1).
When crude oil imports is broken down by areas and countries, the vast majority is imported from Middle East, followed by Southeast Asia. 81% of the total imports is from the Middle East, lead by UAE, followed by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and the Neutral Zone. 11% of the total oil imports comes from Southeast Asia, lead by Indonesia. As for other Asian countries, 5% is imported from China. A small amount is imported from as far as the African countries, such as Nigeria, Gabon and Angola. Japan also imports a small quantity of oil from South America and Australia (Table 2).
As one can see, Japan imports oil from many countries. Next, I would like to look at the distance of oil transportation. The distance between Japan and Southeast Asia, which is the closest, is over 3,000 nautical miles, about 6,000 nautical miles from UAE in the Middle East and approximately 6,600 nautical miles from Mexico in Central America. Approximately 1,270 vessels (VLCC converted) per year are estimated to come to Japan transporting the aforementioned distance. This means that an average of 3.5 vessels come to some ports in Japan every day (Table 3). Based on these figures, one could say that the possibility of a major oil spill occurring in Japan is high.
Petroleum Association of Japan started implementing major oil spill response programme in 1991 triggered by the EXXON VALDEZ incident in Alaska. After the incident which occurred in March 1989, Japan's minister of international trade and industry expressed the intent of Japan's commitment to contribute to the response to oil spills as a part of international cooperation on such occasions as the lEA ministerial meeting and the Paris Summit. It was decided that the PAJ which has the experience of oil spill response would carry out the actual implementation of the operation with the support and subsidies from MITI (Ministry of International Trade and Industry).
At present, there are 5 overseas oil spill response materials and equipment stockpile bases located along the “main oil road”, the tanker route from Middle East to Japan. The 5 bases are: AI-Khafji, Saudi Arabia in the innermost part of the Persian Gulf, then Abu-Dhabi, UAE, across the Indian Ocean to Port Klang, Malaysia facing the Strait of Malacca, Singapore, and Jakarta, Indonesia. Going through the South China Sea and the East China Sea to Japan, there are 6 stockpile bases located in the country. They are from the south; Okinawa, Mizushima, in the Seto Inland Sea, Yokkaichi, Chiba, Niigata on the Japan Sea side and Muroran in Hokkaido. There are a total of 11 bases in-and-outside Japan. (Diagram 1).
Details of the base and available materials and equipment stockpile are mentioned in the pamphlet. We have stockpile of equipment such as the various kinds of booms, oil skimmers, portable tanks, barges, lighting system. Overseas bases have stockpile of the basic equipment such as inflatable boom, weir-type oil skimmer, beach cleaner and portable tank.
PAJ's concept of oil spill response stockpile and lending is shown in Diagram 2. This reference is used to explain to the countries located along the main oil route from Middle East to Japan about such matters as when the equipment are lent and how they can be lent.
Each of the countries has their state-owned oil companies with their oil spill response centers. The OSR centers have human resources, equipment and mobile system and vessels. They have their oil spill contingency plans and risk management programs. However, when a major incident occurs, there may be a case when these are not adequate. In such a case, as the parties concerned, they are able to borrow PAJ's equipment from the nearby base upon request. Lending of the equipment is free of charge. However, the actual expenses for trans-
