This paper describes the practical requirement for the successful use of skimmer in the situation. Most likely to be encountered during an oil spill, a number of options are available to respond to marine oil spills. The primary technique adopted by many government authorities is mechanical recovery of oil from the sea surface. This is usually achieved by use of booms to concentrate spilt oil, allowing a skimmer to selectively recover and pump the oil to storage. Many different types of skimmer exist with designs optimized to deal with different scales of operation, oil types and environmental conditions.