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EBRD, Nordic partners in €47.5 million oil spill protection investment
The EBRD, the Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation Ltd and the Nordic
Environment Finance Corp are investing €47.5 million to help prevent and
mitigate the impact of oil spills.
The three groups will make loans to and take equity stakes in Clean Globe
International, a subsidiary of Finland’s Lamor, one of the world’s largest
providers of oil spill equipment.
Investment in such projects is core to the EBRD’s policy of striving to
improve the environmental footprint of the oil and gas industries while
fostering sustainable development.
The funds in this project will be used to establish training and clean-up
centres in key energy producing areas and transport corridors in the EBRD’s
countries of operations, including the Baltics and Barents Sea regions, which
are of particular importance to Finland and the Nordic countries.
The EBRD will make a €30.5 million loan in Clean Globe and take a €3 million
equity stake. Complementing these investments are a €10 million loan and a €1
million equity investment from the Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation Ltd
and a €3 million equity investment by the Nordic Environment Finance Corp.
In addition to the environmental impact of supporting oil spill protection
programmes, the project benefits from long-term EBRD financing that would not
be available on the commercial market.
According to Kevin Bortz, Director of EBRD’s Natural Resources Team, this
project is an important joint-initiative in support of reducing the
environmental footprint of vital natural resource development, and could
establish a model for improving local access to ongoing environmental training
and services as well as improving emergency response.
Clean Globe International will initially set up Tier II response centres - oil
spill protection operations - in Russia and Kazakhstan. Further centres are
being considered in Georgia and Croatia, within the EBRD’s areas of
operations, as well as in China, the Gulf, North Africa and in Finland.
The initiative fills an important gap between necessarily limited on-site
personnel and equipment supported by producers and municipalities (Tier I
response) and the large equipment stockpiles maintained by the industry which
are available to respond to major incidents but with significant logistical
efforts for mobilisation (Tier III).
The Clean Globe centres will provide significant local resources to be shared
by multiple users and supported by ongoing training, remediation, and waste
management activities. This is expected to be especially beneficial in remote,
climactically difficult or developing areas.
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