The offshore oil and gas industry is a vital part of the Newfoundland and Labrador economy and focusing on the safety of workers and the environment is a top priority.
One example of the industry’s focus on the environment is in the area of spill response.
The industry’s first priority, when it comes to oil spills, is to do everything possible to prevent spills from occurring. Operators do this through maintaining equipment, continuous monitoring, and training. To be prepared for the unlikely event of a subsea or surface spill, Operators have established an Offshore Oil Spill Response Preparedness Program. This Program ensures that Operators have the capacity to respond to spills quickly and efficiently, while also protecting first responders and the environment. The Program supports response preparedness through spill response training, spill equipment maintenance, and development of response protocols. Eastern Canada Response Corporation (ECRC), one of four certified Response Organizations in Canada, administers the Program on behalf of the Operators.
With its largest response centre (1 of 6) located in Mount Pearl, NL, ECRC ensures that Operator-owned, world-class spill response equipment is ready to be mobilized at a moment’s notice. Two such pieces of response equipment are the Norlense Containment Boom and the Transrec Skimmer System. These oil containment and recovery tools work hand-in-hand to contain and collect oil safely and efficiently. Through quick mobilization, this equipment can be moved from ECRC’s Mount Pearl location to NL’s offshore basins in just under 24 hours.