API: NOW'S THE TIME FOR AN OIL SPILL LAW

June 25, 1990
Charles J. DiBona President American Petroleum Institute America's oil companies are building a major oil spill response organization that will enhance greatly our ability to prevent pollution of the nation's coastal waters. But it was not in place to respond to the recent tanker explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, and many people are asking why.

Charles J. DiBona
President
American Petroleum Institute

America's oil companies are building a major oil spill response organization that will enhance greatly our ability to prevent pollution of the nation's coastal waters.

But it was not in place to respond to the recent tanker explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, and many people are asking why.

During the past year, we've been moving ahead with the Petroleum Industry Response Organization (PIRO) which, when fully operational, will be the world's largest oil spill response organization. It will fill a vital gap in the nation's defense against oil spill pollution.

But the full potential of PIRO is on hold until Congress makes a crucial decision on oil spill legislation to upgrade the nation's spill fighting capability. This is badly needed legislation the industry has long supported.

PROTECTING RESPONDERS

A congressional conference committee is considering the question of liability protection for spill responders.

We cannot move as far and as fast as we want to in oil spill cleanup when spill fighters-not the spiller but the people doing the cleanup-are faced with unlimited liability that could total in the billions of dollars.

We're not talking about blanket liability protection. Responders would be liable in cases of gross negligence, willful misconduct, personal injury, or death.

We're talking about reasonable liability protection for totally unintentional mistakes that occur during the chaos of fighting a major spill.

PIRO needs this protection for the same reasons fire fighters do.

How safe would you feel if your local fire department had to check with a liability lawyer before it could douse a flame in your living room? Without Good Samaritan protection, spill responders' options for action would be just as limited.

Containing a spill effectively involves much more than bringing people and equipment to the scene. As sea and weather conditions change, hundreds-maybe thousands-of damage control decisions have to be made, many almost instantly, to contain the oil and prevent the spread of pollution.

In most cases, these decisions must be made under extremely adverse conditions and with incomplete information.

Consider, for example, decisions facing the Coast Guard and spill responder as they battle to save the tanker Mega Borg. Unless oil spill responders have this all-important liability protection, these decisions could be challenged months later by second guessers sitting in courtrooms thousands of miles from the spill site.

The pending federal bill would correctly hold the spillers responsible for the damage they cause. It's equally vital, however, not to confuse the spiller with the responder and weaken the nation's ability to act quickly and decisively to combat oil spills.

PIRO'S TASK

Prompt action is the basis for PIRO. Its goal is to have the right people and the right equipment at the site of a spill at the earliest possible time.

Operating around the clock, PIRO will consist of regional response centers, strategically located along the nation's coastlines. Each center will be geared to respond to catastrophic spills of at least 200,000 barrels.

The new organization will cost $500 million and involve no public funds because PIRO's oil company members will fund the entire operation.

PIRO also will undertake an oil spill cleanup research program at a cost of about $35 million to find better operating procedures and equipment: improved booms and skimmers, the most effective dispersants, and state of the art bioremediation techniques.

And since the best oil spill response is prevention, industry efforts have been focused on the critical areas of operational and navigational safety, vessel design and equipment, and crew qualifications and training. For example, state of the art simulator technology is being used to improve vessel bridge management, and guidelines are being developed for shipboard cargo handling.

Industry also is cooperating with state government and is voluntarily rerouting vessel traffic in highly congested or environmentally sensitive areas. We will continue to consider such rerouting wherever potential hazards exist.

WHAT'S REQUIRED

Enactment of oil spill legislation providing oil spill fighters with reasonable liability protection will be the signal for PIRO to move ahead.

One thing is certain. The answer to tanker oil spills doesn't lie with moratoriums on offshore drilling.

Banning drilling because of recent tanker accidents makes as much sense as banning train travel after an air crash.

More than 95% of the oil produced offshore is transported by pipeline. As a result, bans on offshore drilling work only to increase rather than decrease tanker traffic because they force the U.S. to import more oil.

Right now, on average, 300 million gal of foreign oil reach this country every day. Just 5 years ago the total was only 170 million gal. Each barrel of oil produced from America's coastal waters lessens the need for foreign oil transported to U.S. ports by tanker. That, of course, reduces the risk of tanker accidents.

Copyright 1990 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.