Hot issues for Poland in relation with oil bussinesson the Baltic Sea

Robert Cyglicki

Coalition Clean Baltic Conference, 2004

Baltic Sea is one of the most crowdedseas in the world

• Since 1995 oil transportation via Baltic Sea has increased by almost 100%

• About 15% of all sea transport take place through this almost completely closed water region

Risk of grounding and collision with oil spill result is estimated to 1 per 2 500 journeys.

• Human element contributing to over 80 % marine accidents

Offshore oil extraction threats to the Baltic Sea

• drilling discharges (drilling fluids, toxic components, cuttings and suspended substances)

• impact of the seismic tests on the spawn and young fry.

• oil spills (effects of oil on maritime organisms, populations and ecosystems)

• production operations (produced waters, sand, cement residues ...etc.)

Hot issues for Polish coast:

• Oil transportation

• Offshore oil extraction and exploration

Do not spoil the Future...

GREEN FEDERATION GAJA

Campaigne financially supported by the Regional Environmental Center, Budapest

Main causes:Main causes: groundings;groundings; collisions;collisions;

They mostly occured near:They mostly occured near: port areas;port areas; narrow straits;narrow straits;

Oil accidents

Sweden - 50Sweden - 50 Finland Finland - 60 - 60 Denmark - 60Denmark - 60 Germany - 7Germany - 7 Poland - 3Poland - 3

Number of main ports by countryin the Baltic Sea region:

Sweden 34 %Sweden 34 % Denmark 17 %Denmark 17 % Finland 13 %Finland 13 %

Calls by the selected countries for tankers

34%

13%8%4%

24%

17% Sweden

Finland

PolandGermany

Denmark

others

Countries with oil tankers calls:

Is Poland prepared for oilaccidents on the Baltic?

1. Emergency plan for combatting oil threats to the coast and maritime environment still needs to be developed2. Lack of professional equipment (only one ship is designed to combat oil pollution, based in Gdynia)

3. Financial limits slowing down implementation process of Vessel Traffic Monitoring and Information System (VTMIS)

Facts findings:

4. Selection process for pointing out emergency harbours

Annual Ship Traffic (No. of movements) projected to year 2017

Source: Tacis, 1998 Existing and Future Shipping

Baltic Carrier and Tern ships accident in 2001 oppened up the debate on future transit routes for tankers

Conflict of interest betweensome of the countriesappeared

In 2003 revision of the TEN-T priority projects list proved EU expectations

In 2003 the Expert Ad Hoc Working Group on Transit Routeing of the Helisnki Commission decided about carrying out the Formal Safety Assessment to find optimized future routes

Possible NGOs recommendation concerning future routing for tankers on the Baltic Sea.

• To recognise diffrences in countries capacities for combatting oil threats to maritime environment. • To carry out Strategical Environmental Assessment as a basis to decide about routing. Report should assesses costs of mitigation and compensation measures of all possible variants.

Offshore oil extraction in the Polish coast

Concession on searching and recognizing oil deposits

Concession for the oil extraction

Exploration of B-8 deposit, with the use of technical solutions that have been exercised on B-3 deposit

Recognition of gas deposits through drilling of investigative wells on 4 discovered deposits.

Gas- deposits development

Petrobaltic closest investment plans:

Company established co-operation with geologic institutions in Lithuania, Latvia and Russia (Kaliningrad) in the filed of exploration of hydrocarbons within territories of these countries

Facts findings:

• During the extraction and exploration of the B-3 deposit there was no accidental oil spill• Company do not meassure impact on the fishieries (seismic tests effects on the spawn areas are unknown) • Environmental impact reports for searching and recognizing oil deposits did not fully comply with EU Directive 97/11/EEC• Company invest money in construction of the gas pipeline (70 km long) to provide resources for local power plant

Do not spoil the Future... campaigne

Lessons learned

• Conflict of interest around the future routing for tankers on the Baltic Sea can postpone concrete action under the PSSA frame

• NGOs in cooperation with local communities can improve and accelerate preparation of the action plans for combatting oil pollutions

• Open discussion with the Petrobaltic shows that idea of uniforming and strictly executing ecological standards of oil extraction can be supported by the bussines

THREATS FOR FUTURE?

Russian company Gazprom is preparing new project of the gas pipeline planned to cross the Balctic Sea

Cost of investment: USD 5,7 billions

European Commission, European Investment Bank,European Bank for Construction and Developed have been already approched for financial support.