Oil Spill Contingency Planning in the North Sea

The North Sea is one of the world's important commercial fishing areas; yet the introduction in the early 1970's of oil-producing operations into the North Sea has not been hampered by particularly restrictive legislation or critical public opinion. If anything, the public and their governments have welcomed the oil public and their governments have welcomed the oil industry to their respective countries. The happy situation that prevails in the North Sea area has not been achieved without a great deal of effort by the oil companies and the governments; the way in which this effort was organized and directed forms the basis of this article. Work of the North Sea Offshore Operating Committee While the first plans for offshore oil production were still being drawn up, and the majority of oil fields in the North Sea were in the discovery phase, the industry, through the various North Sea country offshore operating committees, was setting up committees to study the problems associated with oil production in the marine environment. The first work of these committees was to accept the fact - one that is still not accepted universally - that oil spills were possible from the offshore oil fields and to study feasible methods of cleaning up an oil spill. This was done by first reviewing the published data and house reports of the classic oil spills such as that from the Torrey Canyon and the spill in the Santa Barbara Channel. From analysis of these spills it became evident that any plan or method would have to cover a wide range of individual company management structures or be extremely restrictive on any specific company's management. Accordingly, the groups restricted their studies to equipment and methods of cleaning up oil spills and gave only general advice on how individual company plans could be drafted to suit the available jointly owned equipment. All the conventional methods of cleanup were evaluated and it was decided that the only one that could be relied upon to be effective was dispersing the oil with chemical dispersants. (The North Sea groups are striving to develop methods that will pick up oil in the hostile North Sea, and are giving advice to operators and governments regarding improved operating practices that will minimize spillage.) Generally speaking, no mechanical equipment available today can collect or retain oil in seas that exceed 10-ft wave height. Therefore, the present plans of nearly all the North Sea Offshore Operating Committees are based on using oil-dispersing chemicals. The chemicals to be used were selected after consultation with, and on the recommendation of, the national government laboratories who were undertaking large-scale tests of dispersants. On successfully obtaining suitable supplies of approved dispersant, the next step was to decide on methods of application. P. 1153