Workshop on the international liability and compensation regime

Following on from the IMO/SACEP workshop in Sri Lanka the week before, the Director and the Head of the External Relations and Conference Department travelled to Mumbai, India on the invitation of the Directorate General of Shipping, to deliver a one day workshop on the international oil pollution compensation regime. This workshop, which took place on 1 March 2014, was aimed at raising awareness among the many stakeholders in India who could potentially be involved in and/or impacted by an oil spill from a tanker. The Government of India acknowledged that in the last few years the risk profile of India has been rising, in particular the risk of ship-source pollution due to the ever increasing international traffic passing through Indian waters as well as the dramatic increase in oil imports that have led to India becoming the second highest contributor to the IOPC Funds since 2008. In that context, ensuring adequate knowledge of the functioning of the regime is a key priority for the Ministry of Shipping and this workshop was a successful way to deliver that message and establish good grounds for a reinforced cooperation between the Secretariat and the Government of India.
The workshop was very well attended with more than 80 delegates and was presided over by the Chairman of the National Shipping Board with the participation of Dr V Trivedi, Secretary of Shipping as chief guest. The presentations were delivered by the Funds’ Secretariat with the assistance of Richard Johnson, Technical Director at ITOPF. Other meetings were organised after the workshop with DG Shipping to discuss issues of common interest.