Sustainability Strategy Commitments

UKOOA Sustainability Strategy 2002 - First Report 3. Protecting the Environment 3.3 Managing Environmental Impacts   Commitment No. 48 - Oil spill prevention: exploration and production We aspire to have no large spills (defined as greater than 30 tonnes or 225 barrels).  We will seek to achieve this by systematically focusing on the risks presented by existing facilities.  For small spills (excluding third party spills), we have set ourselves the target of reducing the total annual volume of such spills by 30% by end 2003 (over the 1999 figure of 105 tonnes for accidental spills from installations and vessels working for installations).  We will aim to achieve this through an industry programme of increasing awareness of the behaviours leading to incidents, by the discipline imposed through EMS and by sharing best practice. Progress to date : achievements and difficulties encountered An analysis of how spills happen has been completed and data needs identified (work led by Conoco).  The UKOOA Oil Spill Work Group have discussed how to take forward the findings.  There will be six-monthly bulletins produced, discussing the oil spills over the last period and looking into their causes.  This bulletin will go to all UKCS operators; it will have the effect of raising awareness on the most common causes of oil spills and help drive down the incident rate and spill volumes. In addition to the above we are working with DTI to expand the relevant PON1 (Petroleum Operations Notice) and facilitate the electronic submission of data, to allow an analysis of how large the spill could have been without particular measures in place and how it could have been prevented. The five year data (see Section 3 - Introduction) shows there have been no large spills in the last two years, but that small oil spills increased in 2001.  The awareness programme described above should have the effect of improving the situation. Footnote: The baseline for small oil spill reduction is 1999; current (DTI verified) data shows this figure to be 70 tonnes.  The 105 tonnes 1999 figure quoted in 'Striking a Balance' was the figure at the time for total (not just small) oil spills in 1999. Next commitment [49. Oil spill prevention: shipping operations] Previous commitment [47. Greenhouse gases] Commitment listing

Sustainability Strategy Commitments