Oil Spill Mitigation News

The Regional Clean Sea Organization (RECSO), an oil industry co-operative organisation in the Middle East, has hosted First RECSO Enviro Spill Conference and Exhibition.In delivering the keynote speech at the opening ceremony, Abdulhakim A. Al-Gouhi, vice president of Industrial Services with Saudi Aramco, called on members to collaborate to protect the pristine Gulf environment through prevention, preparedness, and response.“We come together to demonstrate our unlimited commitment toward protecting the marine environment from any harmful effects of pollution, in general, and of oil spills in particular,” said Al-Gouhi.He noted that Saudi Aramco demonstrated its expertise in oil spill mitigation at the height of the Gulf War in 1991…

John “Jack” J. Gallagher, a maritime industry veteran and environmental services pioneer, passed away on Monday at the age of 89.Jack’s greatest professional passion was his work as a Spill Manager/Qualified Individual, a role in which he had few peers. Jack was known to be fiercely committed to doing everything morally possible to protect his clients, while at the same time doing all within his power to protect the environment. He attended and helped shape the outcome of more maritime casualties and oil spills than can be remembered.Over the course of his long and fruitful career…

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) will invest up to $6 million to support oil spill response research projects in 2015 and is soliciting proposals for these projects. In a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) released on the federal government’s business opportunities website, www.FedBizOpps.gov, the bureau called for white papers focusing specifically on one of seven topic areas for proposed research covering oil spill response operations on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. The deadline for submitting white papers is February 9, 2015.

The work of a committee, the National Research Council has released a new report – 'Responding to Oil Spills in the U.S. Arctic Marine Environment', which concludes that the the U.S. is far from ready to respond effectively to such an event. U.S. Arctic waters north of the Bering Strait and west of the Canadian border encompass a vast area that is usually ice covered for much of the year, but is increasingly experiencing longer periods and larger areas of open water due to climate change. Sparsely inhabited with a wide variety of ecosystems found nowhere else, this region is vulnerable to damage from human activities. As oil and gas, shipping, and tourism activities increase, the possibilities of an oil spill also increase.

To prepare Canada’s northern communities for the “New Arctic,” the federal government needs to devote greater policy attention and resources to strategic Arctic maritime areas such as Nunavut, says a new policy brief issued by The Center for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). In Nunavut and the New Arctic, CIGI Senior Fellow John Higginbotham highlights the need for basic maritime transport infrastructure in Nunavut, which is the Canadian region with potentially the most…