3 AREAS FOR FURTHER PROGRESS
3.1 As reported in the above, IMO has made significant
progress in many areas, while recognizing that further work
is needed in those areas, such as the development of a new
legal instrument on ballast water management and a Protocol
to extend the 1990 OPRC Convention to cover HNS. However,
there are also several other areas which may need particular
attention of CSD.
Prevention of marine pollution from offshore oil and gas
activities
3.2 Offshore oil and gas exploration and production
activities is one of the significant sources which contribute
to marine pollution. In the North Sea, for example, it is
estimated that between 1984 and 1990 some 14-27% of oily
pollutants originated from offshore oil and gas activities
(Report of Petroconsultants (U.K.) Ltd., November 1997).
3.3 Broadly speaking, discharges from offshore installations
fall into two main categories: accidental and operational.
Accidental discharges is covered to some extent by MARPOL
73/78 and the 1990 OPRC Convention with regard to Oil
Pollution Emergency Plans on such installations.
3.4 Operational discharges from offshore installations,
likewise, can also be divided into two categories: machinery
space discharges and discharges "directly" arising
from the exploration and exploitation activities, such as oil
in produced water, contaminated drill cuttings(oil based
muds) and production chemicals (residual process, drilling
additives and well treatment).
3.5 Machinery space discharges from offshore installations
are covered by regulation 21 and its unified interpretation
of MARPOL Annex I (such as the 15 ppm discharge limit and
the keeping of a record of all operations involving oil or
oil mixture discharges). However, the release of harmful
substances "directly" arising from the exploration,
exploitation and associated offshore processing of sea-bed
mineral resources is not covered by MARPOL 73/78 (MARPOL
Article 2(3)(b)(ii)) or any other international instrument.
3.6 Although the scope of application of MARPOL regulations
to offshore installations is currently limited as described
above, there are no other mandatory regulations relating to
offshore operational discharges at global level. There are,
however, a number of regional agreements covering the matter,
such as the 1974 Helsinki Convention, the 1976 Barcelona
Convention and the 1978 Kuwait Protocol.
3.7 Noting that there were still many regions where
appropriate agreements controlling marine pollution from
offshore installations have not yet been developed, paragraph
17.30(c) of Chapter 17 of Agenda 21 adopted by UNCED called
on States, acting individually, bilaterally, regionally or
multilaterally and within the framework of IMO and other
relevant international organizations to assess the need for
additional measures to address degradation of the marine
environment from offshore oil and gas platforms.
3.8 In response to the call from UNCED, IMO, through its
MEPC, considered relevant issues. In its 1994 report to CSD,
IMO addressed the matter of marine pollution from offshore
platforms. After considerable debate and strong criticism
from a number of delegations, the conclusion in that report
was that " regional approach should be encouraged, and
IMO sees no compelling need at this time to develop further
globally applicable environmental regulations" (Page 15
of IMO's 1994 Report to CSD and paragraph 8.8 of MEPC 36/22).
The argument against international regulations was that,
unlike ships which move from one part of the world to another
and can therefore best be controlled through global
regulations, offshore installations are generally fixed and,
therefore, only pose a threat of local pollution, which can
be dealt with by national regulations or regional agreements.
The argument in favour of international regulations or
guidelines was that there are still many offshore oil
producing regions which do not have the capacity to develop either regional or national standards; therefore some kind of international regulations or guidelines will help those countries to protect their marine environment.
