Regional workshop, Curacao

On 27 March 2013, the IOPC Funds delivered a regional workshop in Curaçao. More than 30 participants from governments and the oil industry in the Netherlands, St. Maarten, St. Eustatius, Saba, Curaçao, Bonaire and Aruba attended the workshop as part of an annual regional conference for the Caribbean Dutch territories. Katrin Park, External Relations Officer and Mark Homan, Claims Manager, represented the Secretariat in that workshop.
It provided an opportunity for participants to learn about the international oil pollution compensation regime applicable to tanker spills and how it can be best implemented by government and oil industry for the benefit of victims, should there be an incident. It was also beneficial for the Funds Secretariat to understand better the legal status of those islands, following recent changes within the Kingdom of Netherlands and their impact on the applicability of the compensation regime there, including the Supplementary Fund Protocol for some of those territories.
At the end of the workshop, the participants had a basic understanding of the regime’s legal framework, contributions system and claims procedure. Follow-up activities included sharing texts of existing national legislations and assigning focal points for oil receipt reporting.