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As an outcome of the creation of the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) Oil Spill Prevention and Response Joint Industry Task Force (OSPR JITF) following the Macondo oil release, and with support from the IPIECA-IOGP Oil Spill Response JIP, a team was formed to evaluate emerging dispersant-related research. It was clear that there was a need to interact with research and development consortia and other oil spill response-related research groups to provide input and potential guidance in order to encourage real world relevance, especially since the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) had been created with a funding level of $500 million over a 10 year period. A specific outcome of the effort has been a review of research papers on dispersant fate and effects published post-Macondo. The main objective was to review results of recent dispersant research with a goal of providing a link to existing dispersant knowledge and to spill response management questions facing spill response planners in the post-Macondo environment. This effort was viewed as an opportunity to solidify a working relationship between federal government and industry personnel and academic researchers in an area of oil spill-related research that would be important for the foreseeable future. Dispersants are one of the tools that may be used to respond to oil spills, especially to those that are large and offshore. When used appropriately, dispersants may prevent slicks from reaching shorelines and adversely impacting sensitive coastal ecosystems. The use of dispersants during the Macondo incident resulted in an increased awareness of their use, especially among the academic community and the general public. The review panel had a primary goal to identify recurring misunderstandings and inconsistencies that might arise due to researchers’ inexperience with the real-world aspects of oil spills, spill response, and the way in which dispersants are designed to be used (spraying on slicks, usually in offshore waters) or with applicable oil toxicity research standards (e.g., use of appropriate dispersed oil concentrations during studies). The objectives were to identify:Potential problems for researchers so that they can be avoided in ongoing studiesEvaluate and share potentially misleading results, especially as they might influence global dispersant regulations inappropriately The paper will review results to date and highlight those areas that are viewed to be the most consistent and problematic (e.g., the inappropriate use of nominal versus measured exposure conditions, a focus on dispersant rather than dispersed oil toxicity).

The oil industry has relied on the tiered response structure for over forty years to meet its oil spill response and preparedness needs. Over this time there have been significant changes in the oil spill threat potential and the expectations of stakeholders and regulators in respect of what represents acceptable levels of response preparedness and planning. Many of the existing Tier 2 and Tier 3 response equipment bases were developed based on the perceived threat from oil tanker spills, however the following decade saw rapid expansion of offshore exploration and production and the advent of using FPSOs and FSOs to enable rapid development of oil production facilities with limited shore support & infrastructure. The recent offshore incidents in Australia, UK and United States have altered perspectives on spill response and preparedness requirements, in particular in response to offshore operations. Many OSROs have changed little since their inception and the response arrangements have remained fixed to the original design criteria, in spite of changes in their operating and risk environment. Through the OGP-IPIECA Joint Industry Project on Oil Spill Response, an OSRO capability assessment tool has been developed based on the assessment protocols commonly used in military and defence operations, known as “Capability Management” frameworks. In a Capability Management framework, the interlinking functions and activities of an enterprise may be defined under several best-practice paradigms or frameworks, such as the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), the US Department of Defence Architecture Framework (DoDAF), the Ministry of Defence Architecture Framework (MODAF), and many other similar systems. The UK Ministry of Defence uses a similar breakdown of Defence Lines of Development (DLoDs) encompassing Training, Equipment, Personnel, Information, Concepts and Doctrine, Organisation, Infrastructure, and Logistics, known by the acronym “Tepidoil”. The assessment protocol described in this paper uses the “Tepidoil” methodology, modified for use in an oil spill response context with the addition of a safety component to enable assessment of Tier 2 (and possibly Tier 3) facilities. The purpose of this work was to develop a comprehensive and objective tool that can be used by industry members to ensure that OSRO facilities have the resources and infrastructure to address their current risk profile. In addition, it can potentially be modified for use as an OSRO “self-assessment” tool. The assessment criteria include:TrainingEquipmentPersonnelInfrastructureDoctrine – translates into Response PhilosophyOrganizationInformationLogisticsSafety

R ESPONSE TO WEATHER WARNINGS. The National Weather Service (NWS) is responsible for issuing public warnings for all hazardous weather events across the United States. Advances in technology and basic scientific research over the years have allowed for significant improvements in this assignment. But while the NWS continues to focus much of its strategic planning toward improved warnings, most of those associated with the process are aware that there are a number of steps beyond increased accuracy to make their warnings effective. These include assuring that the target audience hears their message, understands it, believes it, and responds to it properly. One useful means of addressing these issues involves working directly with community response organizations, whose job it is to direct and allocate emergency services during catastrophic events. Often, the primary responsibility for identifying risks and managing vulnerabilities within a community is entrusted to a local emergency manager. With an emergency management system in place, disaster response can be more coordinated, flexible, and professional. However, one crucial factor in effectively managing emergencies is collaboration with organizational partners, and breakdowns in collaboration can adversely impact outcomes. In recent weather-related incidents, communications between the NWS and emergency managers have become confused. For example, in the case of the 2008 Windsor, Colorado, tornado, NWS forecasters tried to convey the urgency of a developing situation, while emergency managers awaited confirmation that a damaging event was actually underway. In that situation, it appears that emergency managers didn’t entirely understand how strongly forecasters felt about the potential threat, and NWS forecasters didn’t understand why emergency managers were not implementing emergency response immediately. The premise of the present study is that NWS forecasters can benefit from knowing more about their emergency management counterparts, including a general overview of the nature of that community, along with characteristics that might influence collaboration. To this end, a nationwide survey was conducted to learn more about the diversity of individual emergency managers and of the communities they serve.

Following the April 2010 Gulf of Mexico (Macondo) oil spill and the Montara incident in Australia, the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (OGP) formed the Global Industry Response Group. This Group identified nineteen oil spill response recommendations that are being addressed via an Oil Spill Response Joint Industry Project (OSR-JIP) during 2012-2014. The OSR-JIP is managed by IPIECA on behalf of OGP, in recognition of IPIECA’s long-standing experience with oil spill response matters One of the nineteen recommendations concerned the development of an international guideline for offshore oil spill risk assessment and a method to better relate oil spill response resources to that risk. This paper describes the development and content of the guideline, including how the oil spill risk assessment process provides structured and relevant information to oil spill response planning for offshore operations. The process starts by defining the context of the assessment and describing the activity to be assessed. Thereafter it addresses a series of key questions, such as: What can go wrong, leading to potential release of oil?What happens to the spilled oil?What are the impacts on key environmental - both ecological and socio-economic - receptors?What is the risk for environmental damage?How is the established risk utilised in oil spill response planning? The guideline draws on existing good practice in the determination of oil spill response resources. It promotes consideration, in tactical and logistical detail, of the preferred and viable response strategies to address scenarios covering the range of potential oil spills up to the most serious. The methodology to consider the scenarios follows a series of questions: What are the viable techniques/strategies to deliver response with greatest net environment benefit?What are the tactical measures required to implement the identified response strategies, considering technical, practical and safety factors?What Tiered resources are required to mount the tactical measures and achieve effective response? The paper sums up useful tools, key information and the necessary level of detail that are essential to perform an oil spill risk assessment and use this in oil spill response planning.

Tuberculosis (TB) still represents the leading cause of death due to a single infectious agent. It is a resurgent disease in most regions of the world, particularly in non-developed and developing countries Today TB, together with Malaria and HIV/AIDS, represents one of the major health related burdens for the O&G Industry. Being preventable it is also a challenging health related issue. Many countries have developed their own National Tuberculosis Programs, and it is with these programs that O&G industry, together with NGOes has to interact and develop its specific prevention programs. But how and to which extent? How to manage the sick or TB positive employee? How to screen the employees and possible contacts? Which actions to undertake in case of a sickness being detected in the field? To answer at the above questions, and many other related to TB, OGP/IPIECA created a task force with a scope of preparing and issuing a guiding document that will help the Managers and supervisors in O&G industry to manage Tuberculosis. The document is not a new textbook of tuberculosis, but a simple guideline for prevention and management of the disease in field operations and their practical implementation. The document was published in 2010. Its’ main chapters are: The importance of effective TB management; Relevance to O&G facilities; Clinical aspects of tuberculosis; Workplace programmes for TB management; and Appendices. These last ones, five of them, are giving the concrete guidelines on TB detection, Development of TB program, and Responding to a suspected case Being TB a serious health burden to O&G operations OGP/IPIECA issued a document to help and support the Management in coping with all the aspects of this disease. The document has the ambition to become the reference point for the industry on this issue.

The paper describes the design, test, and development of vibration sensing nodes for a wireless sensor network (WSN) that is used for health monitoring of high voltage (HV) equipment in power substations. The principal objective of the project is to investigate the viability of using inexpensive and low-power wireless sensors for power system monitoring applications. Laboratory tests and experimental results that demonstrate the performance of the sensors are presented.

Many developing countries experience serious air pollution, especially in their urban centers, and emission sources often include the transportation sector. Several countries still use leaded gasoline and/or high sulfur fuels, which impair vehicle emission controls or prevent their use. The Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles (PCFV) was created at the United Nations to help developing countries eliminate lead in gasoline, phase down fuel sulfur and concurrently introduce cleaner vehicles as a way to reduce emissions. The PCFV was launched at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in September 2002 as a public-private collaborative effort designed to help developing countries achieve greater progress towards their air quality goals. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) hosts the partnership Clearinghouse, and its partners consist of governments, industry, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). This paper will describe the PCFV approach to helping developing countries advance their policy objectives on cleaner fuels and vehicles. The paper will highlight the critical role and contributions of the auto and oil industries and their respective trade associations. The trade associations, in particular, will be shown to be instrumental to the functioning of such a partnership by facilitating and enabling their members' involvement. While not generally considered public policy experts, industry partners are enabling the transfer of technical knowledge and practical insights into the development of effective public policy strategies, which can mean the difference between success and failure for such initiatives while maximizing the use of available resources.