Spill Notification Point

Competent National Authority

Response Arrangements

The Direccion General de Capitanias y Guardacostas (DICAPI) is responsible for controlling marine and inland waterway pollution. DICAPI is a department of the Navy and is staffed by naval officers. Local representation is provided by the Harbour Master's Office or Capitania in each of the individual ports. These are grouped into six maritime districts, administered by a District Commander. Within the headquarters administration of DICAPI a specialist unit, the Departmento de Contaminacion, provides a permanent body of expertise on pollution.

The national contingency plan has been recently revised and accorded a Presidential Decree. This plan provides general guidelines and an organisational framework for spill response within the 200 mile territorial limit and within navigable inland waterways. The plan consolidates DICAPI's position as lead agency, supported by the Comite de Asesoramiento Technico (CAT) with representatives drawn from appropriate government departments and commercial bodies.

The national plan relies heavily on the existing DICAPI structure to support local and district plans. It is intended that each Capitania should have a local response plan coordinated and supplemented at District and National level according to the severity of the incident. 

Response Policy

The national contingency plan does not address clean-up policy and none has yet been developed. However, because of the lack of equipment in most places along the coast, response at sea cannot be contemplated. Oil impacting the shoreline would be cleaned manually with mechanical backup.

Guidelines for the use of dispersants have not been formulated, although it is likely that application close to known fish spawning areas would be discouraged.

Equipment

Government

There is very little state owned pollution equipment in Peru, outside that operated by the national oil company. DICAPI have limited amounts of containment and recovery equipment and the Callao Navy Base has a self-propelled weir skimmer but this is restricted to harbour operations.

Manpower for shoreline clean-up would be drawn from the Navy and from contract labour pools supervised by Navy personnel. Naval aircraft would be used to monitor oil movement.

Private

In the event of a spill, equipment and personnel would come from petroleum handling installations along the coast, the majority of which are operated by the national oil company, Petroleos del Peru (PETROPERU). The crude export terminal at Bayovar has containment and recovery equipment although this is dedicated to spills at the terminal. Dispersants are manufactured locally. PETROPERU is a member of ARPEL, a reciprocal agreement between Latin American oil companies, based in Montevideo, and can call upon this organisation and its member companies for advice and resources. 

Previous Spill Experience

There have been no major spills from oil tankers. However, a spill of 2000 tonnes of crude from a submarine pipeline in 1984 severely polluted Lima's amenity beaches.

Compensation

* not yet in force 

Regional & Bilateral Agreements

• Quito Convention (with states bordering the South East Pacific)
• Operative Network for Regional Cooperation among Maritime Authorities of South America, Mexico, Panama & Cuba (ROCRAM).

Date of issue: October 2005