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Development of Response Information for Offshore Oil Spills in Area Contingency Plans

SessionPrevention, Preparedness and Response - General Issues

DescriptionIn 2018, the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) launched a project to update offshore response information in Area Contingency Plans (ACPs) in all areas around the United States. The need for this work arose from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the largest oil spill in United States history. The government Incident Specific Preparedness Review (ISPR) conducted on that response found that ACPs did not contain adequate information to successfully respond to a large oil spill in the offshore environment. The BSEE project is structured to develop contingency plan content describing the offshore infrastructure, Worst-Case Discharge (WCD) scenarios, response resource inventories, spatial and temporal ecological profiles, and an overall offshore Concept of Operations (CONOPS) including response strategies and best management practices. All three regions of the United States with significant oil and gas infrastructure on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) – the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, and the Pacific – are covered by this work. BSEE is ensuring all federal, state, and local stakeholders as well as industry are involved throughout the process to ensure that the planning material developed is accepted by the regional response community. The Gulf of Mexico phase of the project was largely completed in April 2023. The Alaska phase began in March of 2022 and will be complete in October 2023. The paper will discuss and contrast the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska Offshore Response Planning.

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