1 INTRODUCTION

Based on shipping accidents in Norwegian waters in

the 1990s, the government launched a study to map

groundings and drifting vessel incidents. Possible

means of reducing the number of such cases were

investigated. One measure was the establishment of a

national emergency towing service to prevent drifting

vessels from grounding in coastal waters. Another

was to improve oil-spill preparedness to mitigate the

consequences of spills from vessels that had

grounded or were involved in collisions in coastal

waters. This paper describes the establishment of the

Norwegian Emergency Towing Service (NETS),

describes individual cases involving vessels in this

system, the training package for senior officers on

vessels chartered for the service and finally, the

approved plan for the future organisation of the

NETS.

2 TRAFFIC STATISTICS AND NUMBERS OF

DRIFTING VESSELS

The Norwegian Coastal Administration (NCA)

collects and analyses vessel movements in Norwegian

waters. Information is available on the NCA website

Havbase.no. A brief description of the content and

applications of Havebase.no has been drawn up by

NCA (NCA, 2014).

Figures 1-2 (taken from Havbase.no) show the

traffic crossing the international marine boundary

lines at Nordkapp (North Cape) and the

Norwegian Emergency Towing Service – Past – Present

and Futur

T.E. Berg & Ø. Selvik

SINTEF Ocean, Trondheim, Norway

O.K. Jordheim

Norwegian Coastal Administration, Horten, Norway

ABSTRACT: The Norwegian Coastal Administration (NCA) is an agency of the Norwegian Ministry of

Transport and Communications, and is respo

nsible for services related to maritime safety, maritime

infrastructure, transport planning and efficiency, and emergency response to acute pollution and drifting

vessels. NCA has five regional Vessel Traffic Service centres. Of those, Vardø VTS has the special task of

monitoring high-risk maritime traffic in Norwegian territorial waters, including the sea areas around Svalbard.

Based on the history of ship incidents in Norwegian waters and lack of commercial tug resources in Northern

Norway and the Svalbard area, the government decided in 2005 to establish a national emergency towing

service. The establishment and coordination of this service was assigned to the Norwegian Coastal

Administration. This paper briefly describes the development of the Norwegian Emergency Towing Service

(NETS), how the service has changed over the years and plans for the coming years. Some cases involving

emergency towing vessels are described. The paper also reviews the development of a national competence

plan for senior officers on vessels employed by the Norwegian Emergency Towing Service.

http://www.transnav.eu

the

International Journal

on Marine Navigation

and Safety of Sea Transportation

Volume 14

Number 1

March 2020

DOI:

10.12716/1001.14.01.09

Norwegian/Russian border in 2018 by vessel type.

Since November 2018, a large-scale LNG transfer

operation takes place close to Honningsvåg, Finnmark

county. Ice strengthened LNG vessels carrying Yamal

LNG transfer their cargo to conventional LNG vessels

for delivery of the reloaded cargo to customers in

North-West Europe. It is also worth to mention that

the size of cruise vessels visiting Northern Norway

and Svalbard is increasing. This will, if emergency

towing is needed, require larger towing vessels to

control the motion of drifting cruise vessels. Further,

expected change of Northern Sea Route transits and

eventually use of the Transpolar Sea Route, will

increase the number of large vessels sailing through

the Norwegian Search and Rescue (SAR) region.

Figure 1. Vessels crossing the line at North Cape in 2018

(Source: Havbase.no).

Figure 2: Vessels crossing the line at the Norwegian/Russian

boarder (Source: Havbase.no).

The vessel traffic centre in Vardø is responsible for

surveying unplanned vessel movements in

Norwegian waters and making contact with vessels

whose tracks deviate from plan.

Vardø has reported the following numbers for

observed drifting vessels for the period 2011 – 2018

within Norwegian territorial waters (Table 1). Of

special interest for NETS are vessels involved in

incidents or accidents in the waters around Svalbard,

as such events are very far from available emergency

towing vessels.

Table 1. Number of drifting vessels recorded in Norwegian

territorial waters.

_______________________________________________

Year 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

_______________________________________________

Drifting 223 188 176 170 136 156 165 115

vessels

(until 12.09)

_______________________________________________

Figure 3. Vessel incidents/accidents in Svalbard waters

(from Havbase.no).

3 HISTORY OF NATIONAL TOWING

PREPAREDNESS

The Norwegian Emergency Towing Service started in

2003 as a collaboration between NCA and the

Norwegian Coast Guard (NCG). Initially the service

was restricted to parts of northern Norway (from Røst

to the Russian border). A government white paper

(Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs, 2005)

offered a basic description of a national emergency

towing preparedness system. As a follow-up of this

proposition, NCA's director appointed a work group

with the mandate to evaluate the need for a national

emergency towing preparedness system for the entire

Norwegian coastline. The work group issued a report

that recommending the establishment of a national

governmental towing preparedness system for the

parts of the coastline at the highest risk of suffering

environmental damage. These areas were Sørlandet

(traffic volume), Rogaland (oil terminals), Stadt (harsh

weather) and Troms-Finnmark (lack of commercial

towing resources). For the other coastal regions, it

recommended that the government should sign

preparedness agreements with commercial towing

companies.

From the start in 2003, three vessels (two

commercially contracted and a Coast Guard vessel)

formed the Emergency Towing Service (ETS) in

Northern Norway. In 2009 the government funded

the Emergency Towing Service in southern Norway,

and a contract was signed with a commercial tug

operator. From 2010 NETS was paid for by NCA

through the national budget. Based on experience

from the first years of NETS a new commercial tug

was chartered to improve emergency preparedness on

the coast of western Norway. Another working group

was appointed in 2011 to draw up a concept

evaluation report discussing the future organisation

of the national ETS. They concluded that smaller

commercial tugs could be used along the coast of

southern Norway and offshore supply type vessels

equipped for emergency towing should be necessary

in Northern Norway (NCA 2014). An updated

description of the vessels used by the ETS can be

found on NCA's website (NCA 2018) (in Norwegian).

4 SHORT PRESENTATION OF RECENT CASES

The Norwegian Coastal Administration and SINTEF

Ocean have arranged annual workshops for crews on

the emergency towing vessels. These workshops have

also been open to other Norwegian commercial

towing companies and Nordic Coast Guards. At these

workshops, the masters on emergency towing vessels

have presented specific cases as a starting point for

discussions, experience sharing and knowledge

building. This section summarizes a number of such

cases in the northern part of the Norwegian Sea and

the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea. It also

provides a brief discussion of search and rescue (SAR)

and oil spill prevention connected with the fishing

vessel Northguider's grounding in Hinlopen

(northern part of Svalbard).

4.1 Fishing vessel "Kamaro" – October 2012

Late October 2012 the fishing vessel "Kamaro"

suffered an engine failure in the northern part of the

Norwegian Sea, south of Bear Island. Another fishing

vessel from the same fishing company was close by

and managed to establish a towing connection. The

weather deteriorated to a strong gale and heavy seas.

The towline broke and the vessel drifted out of

control. The Norwegian Emergency Towing Service

dispatched one of its vessels, the Coast Guard vessel

"KV Harstad" to the drifting vessel to establish an

emergency towing line. The tow to the mainland

commenced and was expected to take two days. Due

to the weather conditions and the risk of capsize, it

was decided to evacuate the crew. Two helicopters (A

Super Puma from the Bristow company and a Lynx

from the Royal Norwegian Navy) were scrambled.

The initial plan was to lift the 14 crew members from

the deck of "Kamaro". On location, the helicopter crew

found it too risky to follow the plan due to the

extreme motions of the vessel (reported wave height

was 15 m). Crew members had to jump overboard,

were picked up from the sea by the helicopter and

flown to a mainland hospital. With two men still on

board, the emergency towline broke. "KV Harstad"

managed to establish a new towline. Due to the

possibility of a second towline failure in the heavy

seas, another Coast Guard vessel "KV Barentshav"

was allocated to assist "KV Harstad". The emergency

towing situation was successfully completed and

"Kamaro" was towed to Tromsø.

Figure 4. Drifting fishing vessel "Kamaro" (photo

Norwegian Coast Guard).

4.2 Small cargo vessel "MV Tove" – Egersundbanken

January 2014

On January 14 2014 the small cargo vessel "MV Tove"

suffered main machinery problems and started to

drift. A large tug started to connect a towline to the

disabled vessel. Under the harsh environmental

conditions, this attempt failed. The NCG vessel "KV

Bergen" was directed to "MV Tove" and arrived

approximately 14 hours after the engine failure. The

direction of drift of the vessel indicated that at some

point, it would drift into an oil field, either on the

Norwegian or British side. The weather forecast

showed no major improvement the next days, and it

was decided to attempt to connect an emergency tow

line under the prevailing extreme weather conditions.

Figure 5 shows photos of the towing operation. "MV

Tove" was drifting in a north-westerly direction at a

speed of 4 knots. "KV Bergen" managed to connect an

emergency tow line to the stern of "MV Tove" at 01:40

January 15. A pneumatic line thrower (PLT) was used

to transfer the hauling line to connect the 22mm fibre

rope being used as an emergency towing line. In the

morning of January 19, the tow was transferred to a

tug chartered by the ship owner.

Figure 5. Drifting vessel "MV Tove" (photo Norwegian

Coast Guard).

4.3 Fishing vessel "Northguider" – Hinlopen Svalbard

December 2018

The vessel was fishing north of Svalbard, when it in

Arctic utter darkness ran aground in the Hinlopen

Strait (Figure 6), grounding in Kinnvika on

Nordaustlandet, which is a national park. The vessel

was flooding and had a heavy list. The Joint Rescue

Coordination Centre in Bodø received an emergency

call from the master of "Northguider". The SAR

resources of the Governor of Svalbard were mobilised

and two helicopters took off from Longyearbyen. Just

two hours after the emergency call, the first 10 crew

members were rescued and returned to

Longyearbyen. One hour later the second helicopter

rescued the remaining four crew members. The

airborne capacity of the helicopters were fully used in

this operation (airborne time remaining at the end of

the operation was less than 10 minutes).

Figure 6. Location of grounding of fishing vessel

"Northguider" 28th December 2018 (from

https://sysla.no/maritim/norsk-fiskebat-nod-ved-svalbard-

15-om-bord/).

"Northguider" had approximately 300,000 litres of

fuel on board. Due to the risk of oil pollution of the

national park, the NCA in collaboration with the

shipowner (represented by a master and two chief

engineers) and the emergency preparedness and

response company Ardent, immediately started to

plan an operation to empty the tanks to prevent a

possible oil spill. As the grounding area usually has

drifting or fast ice in winter, "KV Svalbard", the only

NCG vessel with ice classification was mobilised. This

vessel was located on the Norwegian mainland, it first

sailed to Longyearbyen to pick up additional

equipment for Arctic operations as well as

representatives from the Governor of Svalbard, oil-

spill removal experts from NCA, the shipowner and

Ardent. The main challenges that the operation

presented were darkness, low temperature, drifting

ice, current and unknown and poorly charted shallow

waters. The nature of the location prescribed the use

of dedicated 1000 liters intermediate bulk containers

(IBC) installed on two KV "Svalbard" Polarcirkel

workboats. In total these workboats transferred

332.000 liters of fuel oil from "Northguider". In

February 2019, the Governor of Svalbard and

Norwegian Coastal Administration agreed to delay

the salvage operation until August 2019 when the

breeding season for sea birds end.

5 BASIC EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF

SENIOR OFFICERS ON EMERGENCY TOWING

VESSELS

The Norwegian Coastal Administration chose SINTEF

Ocean as its partner in the development of courses for

masters of vessels contracted for the national

Emergency Towing Service. A curriculum was drawn

up that included competence tables similar to those

used by the International Convention on Standards of

Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW)

(Figure 7). Two modules were developed in 2016,

through collaboration with towing vessel masters and

the Norwegian Coast Guard as shown in Figure 8.

The first module is a theoretical course lasting two

days, while module 2 is a practical exercise with at

least two vessels led by an experienced tug master.

The first module introduces the background for

and the objectives of the Norwegian ETS. Its duration

is two days and it is held at NCA's Emergency

Preparedness division in Horten. The second consists

of planning and performing a training exercise to

establish an emergency towing line on a selected case

vessel and is a one-day event. The contents of the first

module are shown in Table 2.

By the end of 2018 40 masters and other relevant

persons (NCA and NGC) had completed this module.

Participants have included personnel from

commercial tug/offshore companies whose vessels

have been chartered for the Emergency Towing

Service, the Norwegian Coast Guard, Norwegian

Coastal Administration and other operational

personnel involved in emergency preparedness.

The Module 2 course takes form of a practical

towing seminar, where two or more vessels are come

together for practical operational training and

experience sharing. This module is led by an

experienced tug master. The duration of the towing

seminar is two days, during which the crew trains on

connecting emergency tow lines to the vessels. During

the course, both safe job analysis and toolbox talks are

provided before the tow line is connected. Both heavy

and light tow gears are used, and how to connect to a

drifting vessel under black-out is described.

Evaluation and discussions on how to use equipment

follow the exercise, providing useful insight into

current equipment, and possible new equipment that

will make the next emergency tow connection easier.

Figure 7. Curriculum of the course for masters on vessels

employed by the national ETS.

Figure 8. Steps in the development of the curriculum for

masters of Norwegian ETS vessels.

Table 2. Module 1 course for masters on vessels in the

Norwegian Emergency Towing Service.

_______________________________________________

Day 1 Day 2

_______________________________________________

Introduction Understand and apply

Basic information – hydrodynamic forces close

organisation of the Norwegian to a drifting vessel

Coastal Administration and

The Norwegian Emergency

Towing Service

Important rules and Stability – own ship and

towed

regulations vessel

Tasks for Vardø VTS Pivot point

(NOR VTS)

Visit to Horten VTS Safety of own crew – during

connecting the tow line and

during an emergency towing

operation

Review of curriculum for How to write

incident/accident

the national ETS and methods reports and use them for

for documentation of knowledge-sharing and

operational experience and improving the current

competence curriculum

Basic handling of own ship Onboard manuals and

close to a drifting vessel procedures for establishing

and performing an

emergency towing operation

Methods for connecting an Course summary and

emergency towing line on a participant feedback

vessel needing assistance,

Part 1 and 2

Summary: Day one

_______________________________________________

6 ANNUAL EMERGENCY TOWING WORKSHOP

Since 2014, NCA has arranged an annual emergency

towing workshop in Tromsø. Representatives of other

Nordic Coast Guards have taken part in some of these

workshops. The main topics at these workshops have

been presentations of drifting vessel cases, capabilities

of emergency towing vessels, knowledge sharing and

ways of extracting learning elements from real-life

cases and training exercises. Additionally, time is

allocated for group work on various topics. One of the

topics for group work in 2016 was "How can

operating safety for tug crew be enhanced during an

emergency tow?". Some key points from this group

work were:

− Perform a Safe Job Analysis with everyone

involved

− Be thorough in the planning phase – good work

here improves the probability of success

− Training and equipment checking – be familiar

with the equipment on your vessel and its

limitations

− Introduce systematic experience transfer

− Backup – mobilise a third vessel to assist in harsh

weather and cases close to the coast

Outcomes of these workshops have specific

proposals for improved emergency and ocean towing.

Responses from participants have pointed to a need

for a meeting place to exchange experience and

discuss ways to improve tools for connecting an

emergency towline on different types and sizes of

drifting vessels, especially under harsh weather

conditions.

The planned workshop in 2018 was canceled as

important NCA and NCG representatives were

involved in an environmental protection and salvage

operation following the collision and grounding of

the Norwegian frigate "Helge Ingstad" on November

, 2018. NCA and SINTEF Ocean are currently

discussing arrangements for future emergency and

ocean towing workshops.

7 FUTURE PLAN FOR NATIONAL EMERGENCY

TOWING PREPAREDNESS

It has been decided that from 2019 onwards, the NCG

will be responsible for vessels in the ETS. At first, the

NCG will continue a contract with the AHTS

"Strilborg" as one of the vessels in northern Norway.

The second vessel will be a NCG vessel. Four vessels

will share the ETV duty ("KV Harstad" and three

vessels from the Barentshav class). Commercial

vessels will continue to be chartered for ETV

operations along the southern part of the coast in

2019. From 2020, the NCG will be responsible for all

vessels in NETS.

Recently, the capacity of the ETVs has been a topic

of discussion, as a result of based on various incidents

involving explorer cruise vessels in Arctic waters. It is

well known that currently available SAR resources

will be insufficient for larger cruise vessels. Norway

has seen a significant increase in the number and

tonnage of such vessels in our waters. Handling

incidents with such vessels in Svalbard waters will be

a major challenge. The largest vessel visiting

Longyearbyen in 2018 was MSC "Meraviglia", with a

capacity of 6000 persons (passengers and crew)

(Figure 9). In the summer season of 2019 66 cruise

vessels are scheduled to visit Longyearbyen.

Rescuing of passengers from a drifting cruise

vessel in Svalbard waters will be a complex operation,

due to lack of rescue resources in the area. The best

solution will be to establish an emergency towing line

to prevent the vessel from grounding in coastal

waters. The question is whether NETS' vessel

resources will be able to make a safe connection and

stop the drift of vessels with extreme superstructures.

The Governor of Svalbard's service vessel

"Polarsyssel" has a bollard pull (BP) of approximately

50 tonnes and operates out of Longyearbyen during

nine months of the year. The vessel has the following

additional classes ICE 1 B, Wintericed BASIC. Only

one of the NCG vessels, "KV Svalbard", has ice class

(DNV Icebreaker Polar-10 PC) and approximately 100

tonnes BP. Other NCG vessels operating in Northern

Norway, such as "KV Harstad" and Barentshav class

vessels, also have approximately 100 tonnes BP.

Figure 9. MSC Meraviglia at Longyearbyen port (photo Tore

Stensvold)

8 SUMMARY

The National Emergency Towing Service (NETS) in

Norway started in 2003 as a collaboration between the

Norwegian Coastal Administration and the

Norwegian Coast Guard as a tool to deal with

accidents similar to those experienced in Norwegian

coastal waters in the 1990s. Commercial tug and

offshore companies were invited to bid for contracts

to operate emergency towing vessels. Initially, the

area served by NETS was limited to Northern

Norway, but it was subsequently expanded to cover

all Norwegian waters. The mandate for the NETS

specifies that it should not compete with commercial

tug companies when their vessels are in a position

and able to solve problems with drifting vessels.

In collaboration with SINTEF Ocean, the

Norwegian Coast Guard has developed a training

programme for masters on emergency towing vessels

and relevant onshore personnel. Knowledge and

experience sharing are important element of the

training programme. Feedback from participants

indicate a high level of satisfaction with the present

programme.

Additional studies of how existing resources could

handle major incidents involving cruise vessels in

Svalbard waters are urgently needed.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

SINTEF Ocean thanks representatives of the Norwegian

Coastal Administration, Norwegian Coast Guard, tug and

AHTS captains for their input to the development of the

training system for senior officers of vessels employed in

the Norwegian Emergency Towing Service.

REFERENCES

Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs, 2005. White paper

no. 14 2004-2005 "På den sikre siden" (in Norwegian),

Oslo.

https://www.regjeringen.no/no/dokumenter/stmeld-nr-14-

2004-2005-/id406094/sec1 (Date accessed 2019.01.10)

Norwegian Coastal Administration 2006. National towing

preparedness – report from a work group (in

Norwegian). Horten

Norwegian Coastal Administration 2012.

"Konseptvalgutredning Nasjonal slepebåtberedskap" (in

Norwegian), Ålesund

Norwegian Coastal Administration 2014. Havbase (in

Norwegian). Ålesund

https://havbase.kystverket.no/havbase_report/doc/Havb

ase.pdf (Date accessed 2019.02.27)

Norwegian Coastal Administration 2018. Overviw of

vessels in Norwegian Emergency Towing Service.

Horten

https://www.kystverket.no/Beredskap/statlige-

beredskapsressurser/statlig-slepeberedskap/fartoyene/

(Date accessed 2019.01.10)