It is a catamaran with sweeping arms and, between the two floats, an inflatable separator with a reservoir to collect oil. This is the first time a catamaran will be used as an oil spill response vessel. The advantages are the speed (21 kph) and the two floats, which keep the oil together in a natural way. The catamaran was built by Scheepswerf Grave. The vessel cost € 3.7 million.

The OSR 31 will be reserved mainly for major pollution incidents. These are rare in Rotterdam, but the damage is considerable when they do occur. Last year, a total of around 50 cubic metres of oil was spilled. The great majority of this was down to spills of less than 250 litres. On 18 January of this year, the CMA CGM Claudel crashed into jetty number 2 of the Maasvlakte Oil Terminal, and  800 cubic metres of  ‘Arabian light crude’ disappeared into the water. This was the most serious spill in the port of Rotterdam for the past twenty years.