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 | Response  Organisational framework
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Regional conventions in force 
International conventions Polluter and partners
Aside from all notion of fault, the shipowner
or the
operator of the establishment at the source of the
pollution, or one of their commercial partners, may
voluntarily play a role in response. Their involvement, wherever possible,
is sought after and appreciated by the authorities in charge.
In this regard, shipowners of oil
tankers have at their disposal a technical advisory unit, the International
Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Ltd. (ITOPF), which intervenes worldwide.
Many also have access to crisis units, sometimes with personnel trained
in pollution response.
The oil industry has created an association in charge of, amongst other things,
promoting environmentally friendly response techniques, known as the International
Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA).
The main international groups have set up response cooperatives equipped
with response resources prepared such that they may be delivered in a few
hours across the world by aircraft.
Certain members of the oil industry also have an active policy of research
collaboration to develop dispersants,
bioremediation agents and
anti-adherent biofilms made
from alginates. They work towards refining clean-up techniques for sensitive
sites or sites which are difficult to access, and to
improve polluted wildlife rescue means.
Today, oil spill response
often calls, according to the orders of the public authority in charge,
upon a combination of national and international, public and private means.
Furthermore, responders from both public and private sectors train and carry
out
exercises together, both on a national and international scale, to respond
to pollution which ignores international borders.
Oil response cooperatives
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