AMOSC

The Australian Marine Oil Spill Centre forms a key part of the petroleum industry’s commitment to support Australia’s national oil spill response arrangements. AMOSC provides a range of equipment, services and advice to the petroleum and shipping industries, Australian governments and the South Pacific.

AMOSC’s primary roles are to:

• provide equipment and personnel on a 24-hour basis to support a major oil spill response,
• maintain petroleum industry stockpiles of equipment for use in a response to a major oil spill,
• maintain the Australian petroleum industry Subsea First Response Toolkit,
• maintain and support petroleum industry capability to respond to oiled wildlife during an oil spill response,
• coordinate Australian petroleum industry mutual aid arrangements for oil spill response, and
• train, accredit and maintain a core group of spill response personnel.

These company specific petroleum industry activities are supported and supplemented by the Australian Marine Oil Spill Centre (AMOSC), a wholly owned subsidiary of AIP set up in 1991. AMOSC has offices at Geelong, Victoria and Perth and Fremantle, WA. AMOSC also provides a range of ancillary services and advice to the petroleum and shipping industries, and to governments in Australia and in the South Pacific region on:

• oil spill response plans,
• selection and management of oil spill response equipment, including short term equipment hire,
• operational and strategic advice on oil spill response matters, and
• access to international oil spill response providers and petroleum industry spill response networks.

AMOSC forms a key part of the petroleum industry’s commitment to support Australia’s national oil spill response arrangements, as set out in Australia’s National Plan for Maritime Environmental Emergencies, in petroleum industry obligations under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation legislation, and in requirements imposed on the petroleum industry by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA).

AMOSC resources and services are also made available to Australian governments, through a memorandum of understanding with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), to support responses to oil spills from general shipping and other sources.

AMOSC has provided substantial support to all major oil spill responses in the Australasian region for many years, including the Montara oil spill off the northwest of WA, the Pacific Adventurer and Shen Neng oil spills off Queensland, the Pasha Bulker incident at Newcastle, and the Rena oil spill in New Zealand.