Gaute Sivertsen has been elected as the new director of the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPC) from next year.
He takes over from Jose Maura who has been in charge of the organisation for the past 10 years.
Sivertsen, who is 59 years old, is the current director of the Maritime Department of the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries. He will start his new position in January.
He was voted in by IOPC Funds member states against two other candidates who ran for the job — Columbia's Liliana Monsalve and France's Thomas Liebert.
Addressing the IOPC Funds annual meeting Sivertsen said: "I look forward to engaging with you all — the member states, the members of the secretariat, industry and other stakeholders on how best to face the challenges ahead."
The IOPC Funds collects money from oil exporters to fund compensation for shipping-related oil pollution incidents.
Among the incidents reviewed at the IOPC annual meeting was an oil spill off Israel in February.
While the identity of the tanker causing the spill has not been determined, the IOPC agreed that "the pollution could not have originated from any other source than a passing oil tanker".
The IOPC has said it will meet the costs, currently estimated at about $18m.
In a separate incident, it has still to be determined which pollution convention will cover a $50m oil spill claim related to the 37,499-dwt chemical tanker Bow Jubail (built 1996) in 2019, at the port of Rotterdam.
If the courts determine it should be met the 1992 Fund, rather than the Bunkers Convention, then the costs will be met through the IOPC Funds.
