Surprise Oil Spill Response Test for Exxon In California

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) announced recently that it conducted a Government Initiated Unannounced Exercise (GIUE) on August 26 that included an oil spill response equipment deployment at the ExxonMobil Las Flores Canyon Facility in Goleta, California.

The one-day exercise required ExxonMobil to respond to a simulated oil spill from a subsea pipeline connected to the company’s Platform Harmony located about six miles offshore and included oil spill response professionals from the U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Transportation, California Coastal Commission, and the Office of Spill Prevention and Response, the BSEE noted.

This drill was carried out as part of the BSEE’s mission to protect the environment and ensure that offshore oil and gas operators are prepared to respond rapidly and effectively to oil spills, the organization outlined. GIUEs are an important tool that provide BSEE the opportunity to evaluate an operator’s access to necessary resources and to test the effectiveness, performance, and viability of oil spill response plans, oil spill equipment, and spill management recovery vessels, the BSEE noted.

“This exercise required close collaboration and partnership between federal and state organizations that have mutual responsibilities for regulating the offshore industry,” Robert Zaragoza, BSEE oil spill preparedness division exercise designer and controller, said in an organization statement. 

“BSEE and the California Office of Spill Prevention and Response signed an updated Memorandum of Understanding in March 2022 to partner closely on oil spill preparedness issues and activities, and BSEE’s invitation to CA OSPR to participate in this GIUE supports this commitment,” Zaragoza added.

“Government Initiated Unannounced Exercises are designed to give BSEE the opportunity to evaluate, on a no-notice basis, the response preparedness posture of the offshore exploration and production community … These exercises provide an opportunity to ensure everyone is prepared in and event requiring emergency response,” Zaragoza continued.

Back in June, the BSEE revealed that it held a GIUE on May 24, and an equipment deployment on June 1, to assess Equinor USA E&P Inc’s ability to activate its Incident Management Team in Houston and carry out the procedures described in its approved oil spill response plan. The exercise required the operator to respond to a simulated discharge of oil resulting from exploration drilling activity in Walker Ridge block 316, about 167 miles off the Louisiana coast. This was BSEE’s seventh deployment exercise in the Gulf of Mexico conducted in fiscal year 2022.

Also in June, the BSEE announced that its National Oil Spill Response Research and Renewable Energy Test Facility, known as Ohmsett, had reopened after undergoing “significant refurbishment” over the eight months as part of its ongoing maintenance plan.

The U.S. Coast Guard’s Atlantic Strike Team assisted BSEE in completing the refurbishment by refilling the 667-foot wave tank, the largest of its kind in North America, with seawater from the nearby Sandy Hook Bay, the BSEE revealed. Originally constructed and operated by the U.S. EPA in 1974, Ohmsett was passed to the U.S. Navy and then to the Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service in 1990. Today it is the only facility in the U.S. conducting full-scale oil spill response research, equipment testing, and training using live oil.

To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com