Spill Notification Point

Competent National Authority

Response Arrangements

The national contingency plan was revised in 1996. Two levels of emergency have been prepared for; small pollution incidents would be managed by local authorities and massive pollution would be dealt with by central authorities. Local contingency plans have not been prepared although this is envisaged.

Under the plan any major response would be coordinated by the National Anti-Pollution Committee (CNAP) headed - at a national level - by the Under Secretary in charge of the Protection of the Environment.  Members of the committee include the Royal Navy, the Ministry of Public Works, the Police, the Civil Protection Department, the Fisheries Ministry and the Ministry of Merchant Marine. The actions of CNAP will be relayed through Command Centres at provincial level. These Command Centres consist of personnel from the Royal Navy, the Police, the Royal Air Force and the Office of Ports (ODEP).

The Royal Moroccan Navy has operational responsibility for response at sea while the Civil Protection Department would be activated for on shore response.  For small spills, the Royal Navy has a similar responsibility while the affected Port Authority is responsible for spills in port. Shoreline clean-up is undertaken through the local Mayors as well as the Civil Protection Department.

Sensitive areas are listed in the plan (the regions of Nador, Melilla and Oued Laou).

Response Policy

Although dispersants may be used, provided they have been approved by the administration, containment and recovery of oil at sea is a preferred option together with protection of sensitive areas and shoreline clean-up.

Equipment

Government 

In 1989, the Navy acquired a small stockpile of equipment including coastal and shoreline boom, heavy oil skimmers and portable storage tanks. 

Private

The national oil company have a small amount of boom and a number of vacuum trucks in Mohammedia and ODEP have tugs with a dispersant-spraying capability. In conjunction with the recent review of response arrangements, a significant amount of equipment has been placed with ODEP at various locations including: dispersant; spraying and containment & recovery equipment; and temporary storage tanks and barges.

An agricultural spraying company has a fleet of crop-spraying aircraft which can be used for dispersant applications.

In 2007 a multinational company – Oil Spill Response Company (OSPREC) - based in Algeria, was formed to combat marine oil pollution along the south coast of the Mediterranean Sea and the west coast of Africa.  Founding members include Sonatrach, which owns 49.5% of the company’s shares, Sonagal (Angola), Samir (Morocco), Statoil (Norway), Total (France), Repsol (Spain), Cepsa (Spain) and ENI (Italy).  In addition to improving the abilities of individual coastal states to respond to a major pollution incident, the company hopes to facilitate cooperation between individual coastal states by providing training and hosting information exchange activities related to operational, technical, legal and financial matters. 

Previous Spill Experience

Morocco has experienced a number of major spills off its coast SAMIR (1982); KHARK V (1989) and SEA SPIRIT (1990). Apart from the use of crop-spraying aircraft to apply dispersants offshore, the authorities have mainly adopted defensive strategies to protect sensitive resources and have restricted shoreline clean-up to amenity areas.

Hazardous & Noxious Substances

The Ministry of the Environment is the competent authority for both oil and HNS. HNS response would be covered by the existing contingency plan. Steps are being made to ratify the HNS Convention.  External expertise would be sought on a case by case basis for HNS incidents. Morocco has some monitoring equipment (Information from January 2011)

Compensation

* not yet in force 

Regional & Bilateral Agreements

• Lisbon Agreement (with Portugal, Spain and France).
• Barcelona Convention (with states bordering the Mediterranean).

For further information see also REMPEC (Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea) Country Profile (http://www.rempec.org/country.asp?cid=16&IDS=2_1&daNme=General%20Information&openNum=1) 

Date of issue: November 2011