Since the First Meeting of NOWPAP Forum on Marine Pollution Preparedness and Response held in July 1997 in Toyama, Japan, the NOWPAP member States had developed the NOWPAP Regional Oil Spill Contingency Plan, whose purpose is to provide a framework under which NOWPAP member States may co-operate at the operational level in responding to oil spill incidents.

The Forum Meeting had also developed the regional Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for implementing the NOWPAP Regional Oil Spill Contingency Plan.

The overall objective of the Plan is to provide an operational mechanism for mutual assistance through which the member States will co-operate in order to co-ordinate and integrate their response to marine oil pollution incidents which affect or seem likely to affect the area of responsibility or the area of interest of one or more of the States and which exceeds the response capability of a national government and the resources available to it.

The NOWPAP Regional Oil Spill Contingency Plan and its MOU were finally adopted at the 8th Intergovernmental Meeting (IGM) of NOWPAP in Sanya, the People's Republic of China on 5-7 November 2003. The Plan is a valuable technical guideline for regional co-operation in the field of marine pollution and an operational mechanism for mutual assitance on marine pollution preparedness and response in the NOWPAP area.

The MERRAC is the entity responsible for the administration and co-ordination of the NOWPAP Regional Oil Spill Contingency Plan in the cooperation with national competent authorities. As the body responsible for the administration of the Plan, the Centre will keep the Plan up-to-date by receiving and distributing changes submitted by the member States.