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Oil industry admits better spill-response plans are needed
Oil industry task forces formed after the BP oil spill began are defending the use of chemical dispersants while acknowledging the need to beef up the sector’s ability to respond to accidents.
The task forces — which brought together an alphabet soup of trade groups and officials from individual companies — on Sept. 3 gave Interior Department regulators two lengthy sets of recommendations on spill response and subsea containment (they can be found here).
The new report acknowledges that areas for improvement are “apparent” and calls for a broad array of steps by companies, spill-response organizations and government agencies.
They include new protocols for sharing trained personnel and quickly providing resources to companies that have major spills; working with equipment manufacturers and other parties to assess improved skimming and boom technologies; new research into whether constructing tidal barriers and berms provide a net benefit; working with federal agencies on possible improvements to training exercises and drills; continued work with the American Petroleum Institute and the National Society of Professional Engineers to develop a standard for calculating worst-case and most likely discharge rates for out-of-control wells; and many other proposals.
The recommendations on spill response state that dispersants were effectively employed after the BP spill, calling them a “critical element” in preventing more oil from reaching shorelines.
“However, misperceptions and knowledge gaps led to unanticipated restrictions on dispersant use," states the report from a task force of the American Petroleum Institute,
the National Ocean Industries Association and other trade groups and
companies, such as ExxonMobil and Shell. "Industry and government both need to communicate the risks and benefits of dispersant use, as well as the safety and effectiveness of dispersant products. Furthermore, additional research should focus on the behavior and long term fate of dispersed oil in the water column when dispersants are applied near the sea floor."
The report, provided to Interior Department regulators, also said that controlled burns were effective.
The industry plans to improve accident response following revelations of what critics call lackluster planning.
For instance, at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing in June, top Democrats blasted major companies
for having boilerplate — and inadequate — Gulf of Mexico spill-response
plans that included references to walruses, a creature not found in the
area for millions of years. That led to ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson’s
acknowledgement at the June 15 hearing that inclusion of walruses was an “embarrassment.”
Industry officials are presenting the findings at a hearing on offshore safety being held in Houston Tuesday by Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.
