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Alaska approves spill plan for BP tankers Prevention and response outline covers backup tankers chartered to haul North Slope crude; state officials can’t promise it’ll work Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
Alaska officials have approved an oil spill prevention and response plan for extra tankers BP might charter to help haul North Slope crude out of the port of Valdez.
The approval from the Department of Environmental Conservation is good through mid-November 2014.
The spill prevention and response plan, commonly known as a contingency or C-plan, lays out how a company will act if a tanker leaks oil or experiences some other emergency. The plan outlines a chain of command and typically includes details on each covered ship.
BP Oil Shipping Co. USA had submitted its C-plan in late August.
Backup tankers BP, which operates the nation’s largest oil field at Prudhoe Bay and owns the largest stake in the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, normally moves its crude to West Coast refineries aboard ships operated by Alaska Tanker Co. of Portland, Ore.
Alaska Tanker has a fleet of four double-hull ships, each with a carrying capacity of 1.3 million barrels. But sometimes one or more of these ships is unavailable due to maintenance or other reasons.
That’s why BP submitted the C-plan covering additional ships “for the rare event that ATC ships are not available to carry all of BP’s Alaska oil,” BP told Petroleum News in October.
Some people who commented on BP’s C-plan told DEC they wanted details about the tankers BP might hire, including the names of the ships.
But the plan as initially approved covers no ships, so none are listed by name.
If and when BP spot charters a tanker, it must submit an amendment to the C-plan to cover that vessel, DEC said. All tankers must meet the same requirements such as crew training, on-board response equipment and towing gear.
The C-plan amendment must be approved “prior to the vessel entering state waters,” DEC said.
No guarantees Responding to public comments on the C-plan, DEC said its approval was “based upon the reasonableness of assertions and evidence that certain essential resources and practices are securely in place.”
However, that doesn’t mean the C-plan will work.
While DEC determined that BP’s C-plan satisfied minimum requirements, the department said it “does not warrant” that the plan, even if fully implemented, “will result in complete containment, control or cleanup of any given oil spill.”
DEC noted BP is subject to inspections and drills with or without prior notice to ensure spill response and equipment are prepared, and the department has the right to board chartered ships.
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