IOPC Funds runs short course in Australia

At the invitation of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) the IOPC Funds’ Secretariat, with the assistance of the International Group of P&I Associations, held a workshop on the international liability and compensation regime for oil pollution in Sydney, Australia, from 15-17 May 2019.

Claims Manager, Mark Homan, and Head of External Relations and Conference, Thomas Liebert, ran the workshop which involved 14 participants from various Australian maritime agencies and port authorities and two participants from Maritime New Zealand.   The main objectives of the first two days were to present the legal framework behind the compensation regime for tanker spills and to give an overview of other maritime liability Conventions. All types of claims for compensation that can arise from tankers incidents and those that would be admissible under the international regime were also covered in detail and highlighted through several case studies and exercises.

The course ended with a one-day exercise designed to give participants the opportunity to apply the knowledge gained during previous days.  They were presented with a theoretical oil spill incident and were asked to take the role of responders and handle the response operations at the first stage of the spill.  Participants submitted their clean-up claims for compensation to the IOPC Funds and this gave rise to interesting discussions on the admissibility of claims and recovery of costs.