HFO spill response, Southampton Docks

The problem

As an accredited Marine Oil Spill Response Organisation (OSRO) and the port’s Tier 2 contractor, Adler and Allan were mobilised by a Port Agent to provide decontamination and management of hazardous waste services following a spill of Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) onboard a container ship which was berthed at Southampton Docks.

The spill was confined to the under-deck cargo hold, with no impact to the marine environment or quayside.

Adler and Allan’s initial scope of work was to assess the situation, taking remedial actions so that the vessel and port could continue with loading operations as soon as possible and to arrange for safe disposal of all contaminated materials as hazardous waste.

Adler and Allan’s Head of Response Services attended the vessel to further assess the situation and outline a response strategy with the Captain and Marine Superintendent of the vessel.

The volume of spilled HFO was initially estimated at over 5m³ by the Marine Superintendent, based on an estimated depth of 0.02m across the contaminated areas in Bays 34 and 38.

It was agreed that the use of a road vacuum tanker/jetting unit would be the most appropriate means by which to remove the gross product (Stage 1 Decontamination), followed by further manual recovery of stranded oil (Stage 2 Decontamination) and final polish (Stage 3 Decontamination) operations to remove as much staining as possible and any secondary contamination of ladders, walkways, handrails etc.

During Stage 1 Decontamination Operations, this initial estimate was revised to 10-12m³ by the response team on site.