Spill Notification Point

Competent National Authority

Response Arrangements

A national contingency plan was prepared in March 1996, covering two levels of emergency - national and regional. The plan was prepared by the National Committee for the prevention and fight against marine pollution presided over by the Minister for the Environment. Port, oil handling facilities and offshore platforms should all hold contingency plans approved by the Environment Department.

Under the plan any major response would be coordinated by the National Committee, under the lead of the Environment Minister. Members of the committee include SNSC, ANPE, Garde Nationale Maritime, Direction Gènèrale de la Marine Marchande, Office des Ports Nationaux de Tunisie and Direction Gènèrale de l’Energie.

On a local level, the district governors assisted by the emergency committee would be responsible for organising the clean-up, assisted by the Ministry of the Interior (Civil Protection) for shoreline clean-up and the Navy and Ministry of Transport for at sea response.

A list of sensitive areas is attached to the plan.

A review of contingency planning arrangements has recently been undertaken by outside consultants.

Response Policy

No dispersant use policy has been defined. However, containment and recovery of oil at sea is a preferred option together with protection of sensitive areas and shoreline clean-up.

Equipment

Government

Existing government response resources are not fully known. However, in conjunction with a recent review of response arrangements, a significant amount of equipment has been placed with the Ports of Tunis and Sfax including: dispersant; spraying and containment & recovery equipment; and fire boom. The Tunisian Navy also has some containment & recovery equipment at Tunis.

Private

It would appear that most oil terminals in Tunisia hold small amounts of equipment for handling operational spills. Ecumed has boom, skimmers, floating storage tanks and sorbent at Zarzis.

Previous Spill Experience

Tunisia has experienced a number of small spills from tankers, viz. BLOSSOM (1980), BLUE SEA (1992) and ALCANTARA (1994). Following a grounding in the Bay of Biscay in 2005, general cargo ship MSC AL AMINE spilt an unconfirmed amount of bunker fuel which contaminated a 1.5km stretch of cobble and boulder shoreline.  Bulk oil was removed by manual means within 10 days.  A specialist French contractor was mobilised to carry out secondary cleaning. 

Compensation

* not yet in force

Regional & Bilateral Agreements

• Cartagena Convention (with states of the Wider Caribbean Region).
• A bilateral agreement exists with Venezuela.

Date of issue: November 2011