The vessel’s advantages are claimed to be a speed of 11 knots, three knots while skimming, and its hull floats, which hold oil naturally together.

Built by Scheepswerf Grave, OSR 31 has cost € 3m and will be reserved mainly for major pollution incidents, unlike many other vessels in Europe which tend to have a string of other duties as well.

The RPA said oil spills were rare in Rotterdam, but noted that when they did happen, damage could be considerable. Most involve less than 250 litres but in January of this year the CMA CGM Claudel crashed into a jetty at the Maasvlakte Oil Terminal spilling 800m3 of crude. It was the most serious spill in the Port of Rotterdam in 20 years.

Although the design of OSR 31 is revolutionary, it utilises proven oil spill combat technology. The vessel operates well in both rough and calm seas and provides high flow rate and continuous separation and processing of oil and water mixtures. It can be rapidly deployed for all spills and is fitted with search lights and an infrared camera to trace spills in the dark.

The vessel’s self adjusting weir skimmer is a Desmi Termite from Oil Control Systems, delivered with a Desmi DOP-160 vertical screw pump.

Propulsion is via two 447 kW MTU Series 60 marine diesels in the hulls and gensets are from John Deere.