Brazil's National Environment Council has adopted new rules to prevent and deal with oil spills in national waters, updating legislation from 2001. “A significant change is the expansion of the installations to which they apply,” Alessandra Toledo, the Environment Ministry technician who coordinated the revision, told Tierramérica.

In addition to ports, pipelines and drilling platforms, the new standards — approved Jun. 12 — will also affect exploration probes, land terminals, refineries, shipyards, marinas, nautical clubs and the like.

In addition to the individual emergency plans are shared plans for different activities of one owner. The period for adaptation to the new rules varies from one to two years, depending on the type of installation and equipment.