Interior Signs Memorandum of Understanding with International Group of Protection & Indemnity Clubs

Colin Williams, representing the International Group of Protection & Indemnity Clubs, and Lori Faeth, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs, representing Department of the Interior, sign a MOU on November 1, 2011 at Interior Headquarters in Washington, DC. Photo credit: Tami Heilemann, DOI.

On November 1, the Department of the Interior’s Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration Program signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the International Group of Protection & Indemnity Clubs, a 160-year old, London-based association of 13 mutual insurance companies. The International Group of Protection & Indemnity Clubs insures over 90% of the world’s container ship tonnage and 95% of all ocean-going tanker ships, including liabilities arising from oil spills.

This MOU promotes rapid and cost-effective restoration of injured natural resources following ship-sourced oil spills covered by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. Specific provisions in the MOU provide for regular exchange of technical information, mutual training, prompt notification of ship-sourced oil spills and coordination among technical representatives during an oil spill.

Examples of notable oil spills that the Department of the Interior and the International Group of Protection & Indemnity Clubs have cooperatively worked on together include: the November 7, 2007 M/V Cosco Busan oil spill in San Francisco Bay, California; the January 19. 1996 barge North Cape oil spill in Block Island Sound, Rhode Island; and, the April 27, 2003 barge Bouchard B-120 oil spill in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts.

Further reading:

• Memorandum of Understanding