SOME OIL SPILL RECOMMENDATIONS

Feb. 12, 1990
In the matter of the Feb. 7 tanker spill of Alaskan crude oil off Huntington Beach, Calif., some recommendations to interested parties: To the petroleum industry. Prepare for another storm of invective from environmentalists and their friends in officialdom. It was a shipping mishap, to be sure. But it was your basic commodity that, at this writing, appeared to threaten popular beaches. Especially in California, that constitutes guilt.

In the matter of the Feb. 7 tanker spill of Alaskan crude oil off Huntington Beach, Calif., some recommendations to interested parties:

  • To the petroleum industry. Prepare for another storm of invective from environmentalists and their friends in officialdom. It was a shipping mishap, to be sure. But it was your basic commodity that, at this writing, appeared to threaten popular beaches. Especially in California, that constitutes guilt.

    Nevertheless, press the case for domestic production, most of which doesn't require tankers and all of which represents reduced need for tanker-borne imports. Continue to seek better access to the Outer Continental Shelf. Request changes in tax laws that discourage exploration and production. Eventually, someone might listen.

    Brace for more opposition to development plans involving tankers, especially off California. After the Exxon Valdez spill last March, the California Coastal Commission voided county approval of an interim tankering scheme that would have allowed giant Point Arguello oil field finally to come on stream. The action extended a 3 year bureaucratic delay in production start and prompted project sponsors recently to write down nearly $800 million of their idle $2 billion investment. The Huntington Beach spill won't help.

    Most of all, support the Petroleum Industry Response Organization, the recently expanded multicompany effort to create a nationwide oil spill response network. It is dreadfully obvious that the country needs such a system now.

  • To California's coastal management agencies and environmentalists. Count to ten. Take three deep breaths. If necessary, vent outrage by screaming into a pillow or something. Then, and only then, read on.

    Recognize California's copious demand for fuels. That demand will be met. The industries and systems that supply the fuel, be it gasoline or methanol or compressed natural gas or electricity or dried banana peels, must and will be accommodated as long as the demand exists. Californians must tolerate the equipment and infrastructures essential to production, processing, and distribution of the fuels they require in such volume.

    So streamline the public process for approving fuel handling facilities. Public processes cannot eliminate risks to human safety and the environment. Nothing can eliminate risks. Public processes can consider all interests and ensure that risks are kept to a minimum as essential infrastructure construction projects and operations proceed. Public processes in California have become tools of obstructionism. That must change, or Californians must give up driving and air conditioning.

    Accept California's federal responsibilities. Significant quantities of petroleum fuels lie under U.S. waters off your state. Americans outside California need fuels, too. They have a claim to OCS resources, a claim annulled by California's successful efforts to block federal leasing off its beautiful shores. U.S. oil demand will be met, just as California's fuel demand will be met. If it's not met by domestic production it will be met by oil from abroad, which arrives in tankers.

  • To the shipping industry. Tighten up. Your mistakes are hurting the environment and an industry crucial to the economic vitality and military security of the country.

If your captains can't protect hulls and cargoes for which they're responsible, find better captains, or build better hulls, or both. It will cost money. But oil adrift costs more. As imports grow, your financial performance will improve. For everyone's sake, your operational performance must improve as well.

Copyright 1990 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.