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Significant Strides Taken in Enhancing Oil Spill Prevention and Response in UK

The UK’s Oil Spill Prevention and Response Advisory Group (OSPRAG) today showed evidence of the resolve of the UK offshore oil and gas industry, its regulators and trade unions, to tackle the issues raised by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill with the publication of its second interim report.

Jim House, chairman of OSPRAG and regional vice president and managing director of Apache North Sea Ltd, said: “This second interim report conveys the remarkable strides that have been taken so far in ensuring that the regulatory regime under which the UK offshore oil and gas industry operates remains robust and fit-for-purpose.

“Where OSPRAG has identified improvements that would further strengthen the UK’s capability, the industry has rallied, dedicating significant resource voluntarily to move ahead swiftly with the necessary measures to implement the Group’s recommendations.”

On prevention, a key OSPRAG recommendation that has been implemented is the formation of a formal and active body through which well life cycle cross industry issues can be identified and reviewed and best practice shared. The body known as the Well Life Cycle Practices Forum (WLCPF) is chaired by a Mobil North Sea LLC drilling engineering manager and currently involves over 60 people in six workgroups. The groups focus on blowout preventer issues, relief well planning requirements, well life cycle integrity guidelines, well examination, verification and competency, behaviours and human factors. As a permanent group administered by Oil & Gas UK, the WLCPF will ensure the industry continues on the path of improvement long after OSPRAG, which was set up as a temporary focus group, has been disbanded.

To complement the work being carried out to prevent oil spills, major steps forward have been taken to improve response procedures. A capping device designed to seal off oil leaking from an uncontrolled well has been commissioned by Oil Spill Response Ltd and is being project managed by a team in BP’s North Sea business. It is scheduled to be available this summer. The OSPRAG cap is modular in design, with specifications which allow it to be deployed in the widest range of possible oil spill scenarios that could typically be encountered in the UK continental shelf, including west of Shetland. The device, deployable from a multi service vessel, can be attached to various parts of the subsea equipment in order to seal off or ‘cap’ the flow of oil. Access to the capping device will form a key element in the UK offshore oil and gas industry’s oil spill emergency contingency plans.

A further priority for OSPRAG has been to secure appropriate and proportionate provisions that address the industry’s financial responsibilities in meeting the potential clean-up and compensation costs of an oil spill. While there is no legal limit on the liability of oil and gas companies for a well blowout event in the UKCS, there is a formal industry agreement, known as OPOL, which requires each operator to accept strict liability for reimbursement of public authorities for remedial measures and compensation to third parties for pollution damage, up to a pre-determined limit. Upon OSPRAG’s recommendation, this limit was raised to $250 million per occurrence.

Mr House continued: “The new limit will be sufficient to cover the third party costs associated with the majority of spill scenarios.”

He concluded: “There has not been a single blow-out in this country in over 20 years of operations and we must ensure that it remains this way. OSPRAG has made significant progress in co-ordinating the UK’s response to the Gulf of Mexico incident. Where new provisions have been put in place, the industry has committed to demonstrating their effectiveness in a range of table top and physical deployment exercises which will take place over the next few months.”

The full report is available at http://www.oilandgasuk.co.uk/publications/viewpub.cfm?frmPubID=400.

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