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Oil Spill Prevention News

22 May 2022

Op-ed: Building on Don Young’s Legacy of Protecting Alaska Oceans

© Lars Johansson / Adobe Stock

May 22 marks National Maritime Day. Congress established it in 1933 in commemoration of the steam ship Savannah and her maiden voyage, which was the first trans-Atlantic journey ever made by a steam-powered vessel. In the 203 years since the Savannah departed her eponymous port in Georgia for Liverpool, England, oceangoing technology has come a long way – and maritime shipping has become a supply-chain backbone that keeps goods arriving from all over the world. Much of this shipping…

25 Oct 2019

RECSO Hosts First Global Oil Spill conference

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…

24 May 2019

Teaching Teenagers About Oil Spill Issues

Discussions on oil pollution prevention, preparedness and response took centre stage this week (20-24 May) at the latest edition of Spillcon 2019 in Perth, Australia.The forum included sessions on cause and prevention, response management and environmental issues.A raft of high calibre national and international speakers addressed the conference on their particular areas of expertise. However, this year, the audience also invited 12 to 15 years olds to join the event to learn more about issues related to environmental protection, oil and chemical pollution, preparedness and response. The curious students took part in a range of activities…

20 Oct 2017

Rob Nakama: From USCG to Foss Maritime

Rob Nakama (Photo: Saltchuk)

Just two weeks after accepting the U.S. Coast Guard’s congratulations on a military career spanning almost three decades, Rob Nakama drove from Washington D.C. to Seattle to join Foss Maritime as the company’s Manager of Contingency Planning and Emergency Response. “I’ve been in the military for the majority of my life; the transition has been surreal,” he said. Nakama was born in Hawaii, growing up on the island of Maui as the son of a taro farmer who worked for the Aloha Poi Factory.

01 Aug 2017

Oil Spill Response: USCG Testing Evolves

Coast Guard R&D Center’s JMTF is a big part of the nation’s environmental research efforts. In 1972, the U.S. Coast Guard Research and Development Center (RDC) established the Fire and Safety Test Detachment (FSTD), which later became the Joint Maritime Test Facility (JMTF), at Coast Guard Sector Mobile in Mobile, Alabama. As part of the unit’s establishment, test facilities were also built on nearby Little Sand Island in Mobile Bay. Since its inception, multiple retired commercial vessels were used as test platforms ending with the State of Maine, which was removed in 2010.

21 Oct 2016

Changing Spill Risk in a Changing Arctic Landscape

Dagmar Schmidt Etkin

Industry analyst and environmental consultant Dagmar Schmidt Etkin, PhD, takes a hard look at a rapidly shifting operational landscape in the Arctic. Always an honest broker of information, Etkin tells it like it is. Oil spill risk is present anywhere that oil is present in reservoirs, or is transported, consumed, stored, and handled in some way. The Arctic is no exception. Not only are there oil reserves in the Arctic, some of which are being or will soon be considered for exploration and production, there is also oil being transported as cargo or as fuel to Arctic communities.

02 Jun 2016

INSIGHTS: Steve Candito, President, Foresea Consulting

Steven Candito is the Founder, President and CEO of Foresea, which provides advisory services including strategic planning, regulatory compliance and crisis management to the maritime and environmental communities. Previously, Candito was President and CEO of NRC. He has extensive experience with OPA 90 compliance issues with particular focus on vessel owner and insurance matters. Before that, Candito was an attorney with Haight Gardner Poor & Havens, specializing in maritime and environmental law. Candito has also served as a marine engineer aboard Exxon USA’s domestic tanker fleet. He is a graduate of Hofstra University School of Law and the United States Merchant Marine Academy.

17 Mar 2016

Alaska Oil Spill Protection: Crowley Bid for Alyeska Deal Unsuccessful

Photo courtesy of Crowley Marine Services

Press Release: Crowley Marine Services will not be providing oil spill prevention and response services in Valdez and Prince William Sound when its contract expires June 30, 2018. Crowley has provided marine services in Prince William Sound since 1990. Despite bidding aggressively for the SERVS contract extension, Crowley was not chosen by Alyeska to retain the entire scope of the current contract. Crowley is fully committed to continued professional service and full compliance as the marine service provider until the end of June 2018, and will be engaged in any transition process.

09 Jul 2015

Best Bunkering Practices

Vessel operators have an additional tool in their arsenal for preventing oil spills during bunkering operations. “Bunkering Best Practices: Protecting People and the Environment” is a free, 14-minute training video that demonstrates bunkering best practices applicable to the North American West Coast. That said; any marine operator – located anywhere on the globe – can glean valuable ‘take-aways’ from this video. The states of Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington…

03 Feb 2015

Obama Requests $204.7M Budget for BSEE

President Obama requested  $204.7 million for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) in fiscal year 2016 as part of an effort to enable the BSEE to keep pace with deepwater oil and gas development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. According to the BSEE's Office of Public Affairs, there were 69 deepwater rigs and non-rig units working in the Gulf of Mexico at the end of 2014, up from 40 at the start of the year. The Energy Information Administration forecasts offshore production will continue to grow through 2040, as large development projects, predominantly in the deepwater and ultra-deepwater areas of the Gulf of Mexico, are brought into production.

30 Dec 2014

Barge Industry Hails Phaseout of Single-Hulled Vessels

Thomas A. Allegretti, AWO President & CEO

The American Waterways Operators (AWO), the national trade association for the tugboat, towboat and barge industry that represents a large majority of the nation’s tank barge owners, today hailed the January 1, 2015 phaseout of single-hulled tank vessels as a public policy success that has produced significant environmental benefits. As required by the landmark Oil Pollution Act of 1990, all vessels transporting oil in bulk as cargo in the waters of the United States must be outfitted with a full double hull that meets U.S. Coast Guard-specified standards.

23 Dec 2014

Oil Spill Response: USCG, CCG & Foss Team

Barbara Foss and Simushir

Canadian, U.S. Coast Guards and Foss Maritime coordinate a textbook response operation. Robust response trumps the need for later salvage. In the early hours of Friday, October 17, the crew of the Russian cargo ship Simushir attempted to repair a broken oil heater. On its way to Pevek in the Russian Far East, the vessel suddenly lost propulsion and began drifting toward the nearest land, which in this case was the archipeligo Haida Gwaii. Just off the coast of northern British Columbia…

25 Mar 2014

Limited Traffic Authorized at Port of Houston

USCG photo

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) has authorized limited marine traffic in the safety zone in the Port of Houston/Galveston for commercial ship traffic, Tuesday. Cleanup operations are still ongoing; however ships are being prioritized for transit by the Port Coordination Team. The USCG said barges are allowed to transit through the Houston Ship Channel and on the Intracoastal Waterway, after assessment teams deemed the channel clear. "The cleanup operations progress is to the point…

07 Feb 2014

Russian Arctic Oil Drillers Sign Oil Spill Safety Accord

Arctic oil spill clean-up training: Photo credit Gazprom

Gazprom inform that Vitaly Markelov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Ravil Maganov, First Executive Vice President of LUKOIL have signed a Cooperation Agreement on oil spill prevention and response to offshore emergencies. The agreement document sets out an exchange of information regarding the manpower and resources available to tackle any emergency, as well as joint consultations, exercises and training. In particular, Gazprom and LUKOIL intend to conduct…

17 Dec 2013

Transas Simulators Chosen for Two Egyptian Training Centers

Transas Marine simulators have been chosen by the College of Maritime Transport and Technology and the Integrated Simulators Complex (ISC). These are the two institutions of Arab Academy of Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT). The project will be executed by Transas Middle East. The simulators will enable trainees to acquire a wide range of navigational and engineering skills. At the College of Maritime Transport and Technology, each of four classrooms will be equipped with five navigational simulators, configured as mini bridges. The ISC uses Transas bridge simulators at classrooms with six part task bridges and twelve workspaces respectively.

03 Oct 2013

New Report Recommends Offshore Energy 'Arctic Standards'

Report Frontispiece: Image courtesy of PEW

A new PEW Charitable Trust report entitled: 'Arctic Standards: Recommendations on Oil Spill Prevention, Response, and Safety, has just been released. Arctic OCS standards would provide consistent requirements on how to design, build, install, and operate equipment to safely explore and develop oil and gas resources and respond to accidents in the region using best Arctic science, technology, and practices. Arctic standards should account for the area’s remote location, lack of infrastructure…

22 Sep 2013

Oil Spill Conference Names Keynote Speaker

Eric J. McNulty: Photo courtesy of Harvard NPLI

Eric J. McNulty, Director, Research and Professional Programs, Harvard’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative will deliver the Keynote Address at CLEAN GULF, the conference & exhibition focused on the latest trends and best practices in response operations oil spill prevention & response. Eric J. McNulty is a widely published business author, speaker, researcher, and thought leadership strategist. His areas of specialty are leadership, system-based leadership, and social innovation.

10 Jun 2013

Arctic Council Taking Regional Development Reins

Arctic Summer Ice: Photo courtesy of NOAA

What was once a small group meeting to discuss scientific & technical cooperation has grown into a forum in which legally binding agreements between states are brokered. In the 16 years since the creation of the Arctic Council, both the physical environment of the Arctic and the level of international attention paid to this once-obscure forum have changed dramatically. At the Council's latest meeting in mid-May, in Kiruna, Sweden, ministers added new international observers, bolstered the Council's governance capacity and agreed on a common vision for the next 16 years…

13 Feb 2013

The Articulated Tug Barge (ATB) Quandary

Inconsistent Rules Create Uneven Application of Standards. (Captain) Jeff Cowan explores the how and why of the safety gap that comes as a direct result. Oil tankers and cargo vessels face a number of oil spill prevention regulations especially along the U.S. coast. Surprisingly, many of the regulations governing T-2 and T-3 sized tankers which carry between 120,000 and 146,000 barrels of oil do not apply to the new Articulated Tug Barges (ATBs) that may carry as much if not more (400,000+ barrels).

05 Apr 2013

Responding to “The Articulated Tug Barge (ATB) Quandary”

I read with great dismay, the article that appeared in your magazine’s February 2013 issue, entitled “THE ARTICULATED TUG BARGE (ATB) QUANDRY”. noun, plural quandaries : a state of perplexity or uncertainty, especially as to what to do; dilemma. There is no dilemma involving AT/B’s present in the coastwise or ocean transportation marketplace. AT/B’s are indeed increasingly supplanting ships in the Jones Act coastal trade. It is a trend that is slowly beginning to spread to coastwise transport in other regions of the world as well.

17 Apr 2013

Safe Operations, Proven Results

The recent editorial (MarineNews February edition) by Jeff Cowan entitled “The Articulated Tug Barge (ATB) Quandary” raised more than a few eyebrows here at the American Waterways Operators (AWO) and among AWO members who operate ATBs. Mr. Cowan has it backwards: far from being unsafe, ATBs in fact represent a significant advancement in safety in the coastal tugboat and barge industry and have a long history of safe operation. Mr. Cowan’s piece also contained several factual errors…

16 May 2013

Escort Tugs in San Francisco Bay

Responding to the oil spills of the Exxon Valdez in 1989 and the American Trader in 1990, California enacted the Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act (OPA 90). Thus, an evaluation of tractor tug development and construction on the west coast led to tugs providing bollard pulls of +/-90 tons. San Francisco Marine Exchange (SFMX), a non-profit whose maritime history in San Francisco dates back to 1849, acts on behalf of California’s Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR). They help to monitor the compliance of these OSPR regulations.

31 May 2013

Reed Launches Oil Spill Prevention and Response Series

Reed Exhibitions Energy and Marine group (RX Energy and Marine) is launching a series of oil spill prevention and response technology and service zones throughout its global portfolio in collaboration with the U.K. Spill Association (UKSpill) and the European Spill Association (Eurospill). As commercial operations in the world’s oceans continue to develop, the requirement to be able to operate with the least possible environmental impact is an even greater focus than it has ever been for all industries. Also, as activities move into new and harsher territories, meeting this requirement means the development of new strategies and technologies to cope with different and challenging environments.