IMAROS

The IMAROS project (Improving response capacities and understanding the environmental impacts of new generation low sulphur MARine fuel Oil Spills) is a EU funded project running from 2020 to 2021. It is coordinated by the Norwegian Coastal Administration with partners from Belgium, Denmark, France, Malta and Sweden.

The IMAROS project (Improving response capacities and understanding the environmental impacts of new generation low sulphur MARine fuel Oil Spills) is a EU funded project coordinated by the Norwegian Coastal Administration with partners from Belgium, Denmark, France, Malta and Sweden.

The project aims to bring together knowledge and experiences from different countries to identify the most relevant products of the new generation of fuel oils used by ships in Europe. These oils will be analysed to identify different characteristics. Furthermore, the suitability of different technologies and methods for responding to spills of these new products will be identified through laboratory tests and practical tests of equipment. The project includes four working packages: WP1 on project management, WP2 on compilation of knowledge, WP3 on chemical characterization and WP4 on response options.

A Workshop was held in Copenhagen on 4–5 February 2020 to organise the activities on compilation of knowledge (WP2) with the aim of selecting relevant fuels in European waters to further address chemical characterization (WP3) and response options (WP4). The workshop outcome included supporting documents to help the data collection process by the project partners and their communication with industry.

The two-year project started in January 2020 but due to COVID-19 pandemic has caused a delay, in particular with regards to the data collection work.

Some Contracting Parties to the Bonn Agreement are already partners in the project. At the OTSOPA meeting in May 2020 other Contracting Parties non-partners were requested to provide input on data collection as well as new fuel samples.