Oil Spill Response Resources News

Kodiak is now home to the Pacific Rim Response Center (PRRC), a facility that serves as a hub for a comprehensive suite of maritime resources providing vessel support, marine casualty response, and oil and hazardous spill response. The PRRC was established as a collaboration between Paradigm Marine and strategic partners Alaska Chadux̂ Network (Chadux̂) and Global Diving & Salvage (Global), providing one consolidated location for a range of resources to serve the Western Alaska maritime industry.With personnel and assets staged in Kodiak…

Helix Energy Solutions Group has entered into a new agreement for offshore oil spill response resources with HWCG, a consortium of deepwater oil and gas companies in the Gulf of Mexico who have come together with the shared goal of quickly responding to offshore oil spills.Under the agreement, HWCG’s members are given the opportunity to identify the Helix Fast Response System as a response resource in permit applications to U.S. federal and state agencies, and to deploy the Helix Fast Response System to respond to a well control incident in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

A U.S. Navy led team has removed 229,000 gallons of oil from a sunken World War II era German heavy cruiser that has been resting on the seafloor near the Marshall Islands for more than 70 years.After being transferred to the U.S. as a war prize, the cruiser Prinz Eugen was loaded with oil and cargo and used to assess survivability of warships during the Operation Crossroads atomic bomb tests in the Pacific. The ship survived two atomic blasts before being towed to Kwajalein Atoll…

Statoil awards Simon Møkster Shipping AS contracts for three emergency response and rescue vessels (ERRV), and Havila Shipping ASA for one ERRV. The contacts have a total value, included options, of NOK 2.7 billion. The vessels will be part of Statoil’s area-wide emergency response on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). The emergency response vessels play an important role in addressing government authorities’ and the company’s own requirements for rescue, hospital, fire-fighting, emergency towing and oil spill preparedness. “Statoil has an extensive emergency preparedness system on the NCS, and through the contracts we have secured four vessels that are tailored to our waters.

As the Voice of Spill Response Professionals, the Spill Control Association of America (SCAA) is supporting and assisting with the planning and coordination of IOSC 2014 on May 5-8 in Savannah, Ga. SCAA encouraged all members to attend IOSC, submit technical papers, volunteer as technical paper review team members and demonstrate equipment technologies. The centerpiece of SCAA's support during this year's Conference is working with the U.S. Coast Guard IOSC Program Planning Committee and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) to develop and facilitate the On-Water and Aerial Technology Demonstration schedule for 5 p.m. on May 7.

An explosion aboard the Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit Deepwater Horizon on April 20, 2010 set off a chain of events that led to its sinking and subsequent oil spill. That same day, the DHS Secretary declared the Deepwater Horizon incident a Spill of National Significance (SONS). Eventually, at least 47 offers of International assistance were received. Response to the incident required extraordinary coordination, a coordinated effort to secure the well, contain and clean up the oil among all stakeholders.

On October 12, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar determined it is appropriate that deepwater oil and gas drilling resume, provided that operators certify compliance with all existing rules and requirements, including those that recently went into effect, and demonstrate the availability of adequate blowout containment resources. Secretary Salazar reached his decision after reviewing a report from Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEM) Director Michael R. Bromwich and considering other information on the progress of offshore oil and gas safety reforms, the availability of spill response resources, and improved blowout containment capabilities.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) to issue new suspensions of deepwater drilling – set to last until at least November 30, 2010 -- on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), claiming a pause is needed to ensure that oil and gas companies implement adequate safety measures to reduce the risks associated with deepwater drilling operations and are prepared for blowouts and oil spills. “More than eighty days into the BP oil spill…

The US Coast Guard issued guidance on vessel and facility response plans in relation to oil spill response organization (OSRO) resource movements during significant pollution events. The goal is to advise field units and regulated entities on adjustments that may be required when oil spill response resources identified in response plans are suddenly unavailable because they have been deployed to a major oil spill elsewhere. This is what occurred following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The guidance is intended to regularize the process of making adjustments and obtaining necessary waivers.

New York Assembly Bill 5175 (AB 5175), sponsored by Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli (D), requires the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to develop, draft and implement a regulatory program to address the prevention of oil spills on state waterways. The existing regulations provide DEC a degree of discretion which permits the agency to consider federal and local programs that may address issues related to oil spills, such as pre-deployment of booming equipment, contingency plans, oil spill response resources, and notification procedures. AWO commented many, if not all, the requirements in AB 5175 are already part of federal regulations implemented in the last decade.