When an oil-spill happens, rapid, highly-skilled action is needed. The concept of regional Environmental Action Centers developed by Lamor Clean Globe International offers effective equipment and means of responding to oil-spills - including on the Baltic Sea.

International oil companies, shipowners, the European Union, financial institutions as well as local officials and industrial companies have greeted Lamor's Environmental Action Center concept with interest.

Besides Finland, the company has also set up oil-spill response centres in Siberia, St Petersburg, Shanghai, Denmark, Portugal and Oman. Growth areas are in Russia and the Middle East. The Clean Globe Centers operate in close cooperation with the government and local communities in the host country in order to promote and increase local preparedness for responding to oil-spills.

"We are trying to get clamps for oil-spill response equipment installed at the construction stage on all new tankers operating along the coast. Thanks to this, vessels can, if necessary, be quickly equipped to collect oil from the sea," says Vice President Pekka Eskelinen of Clean Globe International Ltd, which is part of the Lamor Group.

The European Maritime Safety Agency, which was set up by the European Union, considers Lamor's concept to be the most efficient, progressive and cost-effective solution for increasing oil-spill response preparedness in Europe's maritime regions.

Baltic gives cause for concern

Lamor is also a key player in increasing oil-spill response preparedness for the Baltic Sea. Although an increasing amount of investment has been made in new oil-spill response equipment, vessels, observation methods and technology in almost all the coastal countries of the Baltic, the situation gives cause for concern.

The growth in oil transportation on the Gulf of Finland is faster than was predicted a few years ago. Every day between 10 and 15 vessels with a cargo of oil or chemicals come to the gulf. All in all, the traffic in the region has increased ten-fold during the past twenty years. In 2006 the volume of oil transport was 140 million tonnes, and in 2010 it will probably exceed the 200 million tonne limit.

"When the investment and what is developed from it is compared with the accelerating increase in the volume of oil transportation, we're lagging behind. As a matter of fact, the present investment is a painfully little. If last year the average price of crude oil was 47 euros per barrel, the oil transported amounted to 41,000,000,000,000 euros," Eskelinen calculates.

The Baltic has so far been spared the bigger accidents. Last year 35 smaller spills were noticed inside Finland's economic zone.

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Vessels of the Swedish Coast Guard ready for oil-spill response action using Lamor equipment.