Singapore Leads Table-Top Oil Spill Response Exercise
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has conducted a table-top exercise with Indonesia and Malaysia to enhance regional coordination and strengthen response capabilities for oil spills. The exercise brought together over 20 representatives from MPA, Indonesia’s Directorate General of Sea Transportation, Malaysia’s Environment Department, and oil spill response experts from ITOPF.
As part of Singapore’s chairmanship of the Revolving Fund Committee (RFC) from April 2022 until March 2027, MPA led the exercise to foster collaboration. The RFC, established through a memorandum of understanding between the three states and the Malacca Strait Council (MSC) in 1981, is a funding mechanism allowing each state to draw cash advance from the Fund to combat oil spill from ships in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore (SOMS).
The exercise focused on coordination procedures to ensure swift and clear communication between the littoral States during an oil spill incident, rapid deployment of oil spill response assets by the littoral States, and collaboration between government agencies and oil spill response companies to optimize oil spill response resources for incidents in the SOMS.
The response strategies and asset deployment plans tested will be exercised during a Ground Deployment Exercise between the three littoral States and ITOPF in 2026.
According to ITOPF data, 10 oil spills of more than seven tonnes were recorded from tanker incidents in 2024, the same number as in 2023. This brings the decade average to 7.4 tanker spills per year, slightly higher than the average for the 2010s (6.3 spills per year).
Six of the 10 incidents in 2024 resulted in spills greater than 700 tonnes (classified as ‘large’ spills). These mostly involved spills of fuel oil and occurred in South America, Asia and Europe. The four other incidents (classified as ‘medium’ spills) also involved spills of fuel oil. Two occurred in Europe, one in Asia and one in North America.
