ON Wednesday, November 13 at 7pm, Cam Pulham picked up his telephone to hear that a stricken tanker was leaking 70,000 tonnes of oil into the Atlantic.

Immediately, the duty manager and team leader of Southampton-based Oil Spill Response Ltd (OSRL) set to action his company's lightning- quick reaction process.

Experts were briefed through the night and research carried out.

Less than 12 hours after the initial call, the senior technician of the largest oil spill clean-up company in the world, Dave Oland, arrived at the operation site in La Coruna, Spain.

Just miles from the base of the clean-up operation, thousands of tonnes of heavy fuel were spilling on to the coast of Galicia.

This was an especially fast response time for OSRL because of its close working relationship with the Spanish government.

Last year, the Spanish coastguard, SASMAR, joined the non-profit organisation meaning legal arrangements were already made.

For non-members it could take days to sign agreements, delaying a process that has to be fast.

The longer a slick is left, the harder it is to clean up, which is why rapid response is essential.

By Saturday, seven more members of OSRL had joined Mr Oland to help co-ordinate the emergency operation.

Twenty tonnes of specialist equipment accompanied their arrival on OSRL's own Hercules aeroplane.

A week later, six more responders had joined the team with a further complement of equipment including off-road vehicles, booms, oil pumps and dispersant to arrive shortly after.

Containment of the disaster was already well under way.

OSRL does not manage operations but acts as an adviser.

There are a wealth of methods available to deal with oil spills but each situation is different.

For medium weight fuels, dispersant can be used.

The chemical breaks down the slick into tiny particles, which sink up to five metres below the surface of the sea.

Away from the wind, the particles are washed away by natural currents.

Once dispersed over a wide area they can be digested by bacteria.

In this case, the heavy fuel oil was too thick for dispersant to be effective.

This is just one example of the expertise brought to clean-up jobs around the world by OSRL.

Booms could be similarly misused - floating barriers which help prevent the spread of the slick.

Nearer the coast they could surround the sinking vessel to great effect.

But 150 miles off the Coast of Death - so named because of the frequency of shipwrecks - the choppy waves would render them near useless.

"No one has our experience of dealing with this kind of situation," said duty manager Stuart Gair. "We help prevent people making mistakes which have already been made in the past."

The company has been permanently either sorting out spills or training how to clean them up since 1981.

"We do 2000 man hours of training per year," said Mr Gair.

For the company's 27 responders, that means just under 100 days training each every year.

In previous years they have dealt with as many as 26 spills of varying sizes on land and at sea.

Cases like the sinking of Prestige are extremely rare.

Most of the oil carried by the 44,000-ton Bahamian-flagged tanker remains in its hold.

The "ticking time bomb" that has sunk to the bottom of the sea could cause a huge ecological disaster.

No one can be sure exactly what will happen to the fuel on the ocean floor 3.5km beneath the surface.

At that depth, the near-freezing temperatures are cool enough to contain the oil.

But there is a strong chance it will leak as Prestige sinks or if it hits the seabed with a bang.

If it does, the thousands of ton of fuel could be spread along miles of coastline causing immense problems for wildlife from Portugal to France.

With the vast array of equipment and know-how involved, hopefully such a catastrophe will be avoided.

So far, around 5,000 tons of heavy fuel have devastated the Galician coastline.

Pumps will be used on and off the shore to recover the liquid.

OSRL will also advise on how to dispose of the waste oil.

In some cases it can be reprocessed and used for its original purpose.

Fuel recovered in a recent, smaller, spill in Yemen was mixed with sand and used in a road- building project.

Landfill is another option. As the oil came from underground in the first place, there are worse situations that could arise.

The technical team from OSRL will be on hand in Spain and at the headquarters on William Street in Northam for at least the next two weeks.

If the oil leaks from the hull of Prestige their work will take many months.

And they remain alert for any other disasters as lightning can easily strike twice.

"It's the time of year when accidents happen," said Mr Gair.

Already technicians from partner organisation East Asia Response Ltd are flying to Southampton to act as back-up should the worst happen.

Tay Hoong, from EARL, joined the team in La Coruna on November 19, with OSRL alliance technical director Dave Salt.

Just another day for the response team owned by 26 oil companies which is ready to deploy with military precision 365 days a year.