AWO Near Miss 23-09 Communication Between Terminal and Vessel PIC to Prevent Spills Due to Unplanned Shutdowns

An investigation is ongoing as to the root cause of this spill to deck. It is qualified as a near miss here because no cargo entered the water.

 

While discharging, the transfer was shut down unexpectedly. The tankerman begin to make his way to the pump engines, talking to the dock worker on the way. The dock worker did not know what had taken place at the time I spoke to him. He did relay that the plant had passed information to him that something had “tripped out” on the plant end. Because I was not notified immediately when the plant shut down, the barge continued pumping, which raised pump pressure high enough to trip the barge panels.  This put too much load on the engine which led to cargo spilling to deck.  The tankerman cleaned up the cargo immediately.  No oil made it out of containment secondary containment.