WELCOME TO SPILL ALERT WELCOME TO SPILL ALERT

WELCOME

Lee Barber, Chair UK and Ireland Spill Association

Welcome to this autumn issue of Spill Alert.

There seems to be a lot happening in the industry at the moment. Face to face events such as conferences, seminars and exercises are back on. I recently attended a conference which discussed amongst other things the oil industry and the need for growth over the next decade to fund carbon zero initiatives. A lack of investment in exploration following the pandemic means that we could start to see shortfalls in energy supply. A lot of the oil majors realise that they need to fund the energy transition and the only way to do that is through exploration and production activities, so we should expect to see oil and gas activities for quite some time.

There was also some scepticism that our carbon neutral goals are realistic for developing nations and that we should instead be considering a balanced energy portfolio rather than an elimination of fossil fuels. That said, there is no doubt that the world’s use of hydrocarbons is going to reduce over the coming decades and this will bring challenges which responders need to prepare for. Few emerging fuels come without risk, and I encourage all members to keep an eye on the future, gain knowledge as opportunities are there in helping customers transition as they will need our advice to do it safely and should involve us in their contingency planning. As ever with spill response, we expect the unexpected, and talking to many members and colleagues there seems to be plenty to keep us busy. Aged infrastructure that has not had much attention these last 18 months is now back working hard and on occasions failing and a spill is the result. Hurricane Ida has shown that much of it lacks resilience in the face of Mother Nature. I suspect this is not unique to the USA.

One of the safeguards getting more visibility is the interpretation of satellite imagery and importantly drones to clarify what the satellite may have picked up. These are such a useful tools and we at OSRL have for some time recognised their importance in the response toolkit. The spill in the Eastern Mediterranean has shown just how useful, yet also low cost their use can be in tracking incidents. As technology gets smarter, I can imagine that routine monitoring using satellites and drones will replace piloted fixed wing operations.

Preparedness is so important and I am delighted that so many members were in Portland exercising together in early September. The weather must have made it special, even the BBC ventured out to film the event and the feedback I have had was that it was great to see companies working seamlessly together and the spill stockpile getting wet!

I hope that autumn is good for you and I look forward to catching up with you at our virtual AGM.