Oil Spill Response and Containment

Industry’s responsibilities do not end with efforts to prevent blowouts like that at the Macondo well. They extend to efforts to contain any such incidents as quickly as possible and to mitigate the harm caused by spills through effective response efforts.

The oil and gas industry needs to develop large-scale rescue, response, and containment capabilities. To be successful—and to gain the trust of the industry, government, insurers and the public—these new efforts by industry must include extensive planning and preparations; developing scenarios of new types of potential accidents; and conducting full-scale drills and training exercises that involve both people and equipment, and industry must do all of these things continually.

As next-generation equipment is developed, industry must ensure that its containment technology is compatible with its wells. Capping and containment options should be developed in advance to contain blowouts from platform wells.