ITOPF participates in IOSC 2021

ITOPF participated in the International Oil Spill Conference (IOSC) 2021, which, due to the pandemic, went ahead in a virtual format from 10th-14th  May 2021. 

ITOPF are active supporters of IOSC and, in addition to our involvement as presenters, helped frame the programme for the week as part of the organising programme committee.  

ITOPF presented three papers at the conference. On Monday 10th May, Annabelle Nicolas-Kopec presented a paper entitled “Impact of the media on the spill response effectiveness”. This was co-authored with David Campion who participated in the live Q&A session after the talk. Lauren Fear presented on ‘Ship-source spills – it’s more than just oil” during the “Case Studies and Lesson Learned” session on Tuesday 11th May and Alex Hunt presented a joint paper with IMO on the WAKASHIO spill in a session on international oil spill response case studies later the same day.  

Our involvement also included Tim Wadsworth chairing a session on “Research Outcomes informing Planning, Preparedness, Response, and Restoration: Dispersants” and Karen Purnell participating in a panel discussion during the “Plenary Session: International Leaders Reflection on Progress.” Karen also led one of the breakout discussions during the “Women in Oil Spill Prevention, Preparedness, Response and Restoration” session. 

In the photo festival, Annabelle Nicolas-Kopec secured top spot in the oil spill response category with a picture from the GOLDEN RAY cargo ship incident in Georgia.

In association with IOSC, ITOPF ran a training course on oil spill fundamentals the week before the conference. This was delivered by Miguel Patel, Lauren Fear, Phil Ruck and Tim Wadsworth and used ITOPF’s unique experience and first-hand knowledge of historic and recent case studies to cover a variety of topics including the properties of oil in the environment, the impacts of oil spills, the techniques employed to recover spilt oil at-sea and on the shoreline, as well as command and cost recovery. Twenty two delegates attended this course and the feedback was very positive. 

Finally, we also took part as ‘Premium exhibitors’ at the Virtual Expo. Though it couldn’t match the experience of an in-person event, it nevertheless provided an opportunity to showcase our films and publications and

Categories: Training & Education, Information Services