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The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) has contracted a new stand-by oil spill response vessel by finalising a tender for the Atlantic area.

Spanish shipowner Remolcanosa will provide a pollution response capability using the supply vessel Ria de Vigo [pictured]. The vessel will cover mainly the Atlantic from Porto in Portugal to and including Brest, France.

Ria de Vigo is a supply vessel with a storage capacity of 1,522 m³. It will be equipped with one set of sweeping arms; one skimmer; two sets of booms and slick detection radar. The vessel will enter into operational service in the first half of 2009.

“The Western coast of the Iberian Peninsula and Galicia in particular has nearby one of the busiest oil tankers routes in Europe. In addition, the latest major spill in Europe took place in the Galician coast,” said EMSA Executive Director Willem de Ruiter.

"I am particularly pleased that the Agency has been able to contract response capacity for this area, knowing that, in case of major crisis, Member States are entitled to call on EMSA for assistance.”

Background Regulation 724/2004/EC gave EMSA the task of assisting EU/EEA Member States in their response to ship-sourced pollution within the Community. Accordingly, a network of pollution response vessels has been phased-in covering the whole of the European coastline.

The system is based on the contracted vessels (following technical modifications as per EMSA requirements) being multi-purpose in terms of the types of activities they can perform.

The vessels – currently located in all European waters - carry out their normal commercial operations and when needed are transformed, at short notice, into oil spill response vessels.

In the case of Ria de Vigo, the vessel will also work regularly for the regional Government, performing fishery control activities.