National Planning Workshop for Turkey

Peter Taylor represented the Oil Spill Preparedness Regional Initiative (OSPRI) at a national contingency planning workshop for Turkey, held in Ankara. The event was a follow-up to a training course held earlier in the year. It was organized by the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the national responsible authority for oil spill preparedness.

Peter worked with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF) to provide international participation in the workshop. There were 18 participants from the key government organizations involved in the development of the Turkish national oil spill plan. Detailed discussion of existing and proposed Turkish legislation took place, including how this can be implemented in line with relevant international agreements to which Turkey is a party (OPRC Convention, Bucharest Convention and Barcelona Convention plus the oil spill compensation agreements, i.e. ‘CLC’ and the Fund Convention).

OSPRI hopes to continue the positive cooperation with the Turkish authorities in the further development and implementation of the national plan.