Companies Respond to Oil Spill

Jane Van Ryan
Posted May 19, 2010

While the response to the Deepwater Horizon accident has focused on BP, it's not the only energy company that is working 24/7 to plug the leaks and manage the spill.

As Chris John, president of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association observed in the podcast below, many other companies have volunteered to send equipment and personnel to help in the response activities.

The National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) recently compiled a list of companies that have offered to help with response effort. Many API members are included:

• Marathon - Two support vessels; deepwater drilling experts; and ROV hot stab equipment.

• Chevron - Chevron's Venice, La., base for spill response activities; personnel from its Pascagoula refinery to assist the Coast Guard's local incident command response team; a portable trailer for marine wildlife rescue; and subsea equipment and experts.

• Anadarko - Personnel to assist BP's technical teams.

• ConocoPhillips - Technical support to BP; assistance through ConocoPhillips' Crisis Management Emergency Response Center; use of spill response equipment, chartered helicopters, marine vessels and two shore bases in Louisiana; a system for employees to make charitable contributions to non-profit groups involved in the response with matching funds from the company; and response volunteers from ConocoPhillips.

• ExxonMobil - A drilling rig for a staging base; two supply vessels; an underwater vehicle and support vessel; subsea experts on blowout preventers, dispersants, well construction and containment options; equipment including dispersants, fire boom and radios; and the procurement and manufacture of additional dispersant supplies.

• Shell Oil - Six vessels; an ROV with a dynamically positioned vessel; a helicopter; ROV hot stab panel; dispersant; containment done; technical expertise on subsea wells, environmental science and emergency response; and the Robert Training and Conference Center in Robert, La., to support the Unified Command.

• Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC) - Four C-130 aircraft for spraying dispersants and seven smaller spotter planes; 10 oil spill response vessels; 2 ocean barges capture and store skimmed oil; 250 staff members; six fast response vessels; 18 shallow water barges that hold pontoons used for skimming to protect the shoreline; 1.5 million feet of boom; and 8 fire booms.

The oil and natural gas industry takes the Deepwater Horizon accident and the loss of the 11 crew members very seriously. At present, it is battling the oil spill and waiting for the results of the ongoing investigations on the cause of the explosions and fire. The industry will take steps to prevent a similar accident from happening again.