Biodiversity and working in sensitive areas

Oil spills and the environment

We have made considerable advances in the way we identify, assess and manage our oil spill risks and we are sharing lessons with governments and industry

We have used lessons learned from our Deepwater Horizon oil spill response to strengthen our approaches to preparedness and response planning. In July 2012, new group requirements for oil spill preparedness and response planning, and for crisis management were issued, with timeframes established for required conformance by the businesses. To facilitate understanding of these new requirements, workshops have been conducted with more than 600 staff from 45 countries, ranging from senior leaders to on-site oil spill response teams.

Understanding and mitigating the risks

Identifying and assessing the potential oil spill risks and potential impacts helps us to develop appropriate oil spill response and crisis management plans. These plans are backed up by the tools and people required to mount an effective response to an incident and mitigate potential impacts.

We further developed our oil spill modelling systems and capabilities in 2012. Improving existing modelling tools, conducting staff training in our regions and enhancing the environmental and socio-economic data required in the models, have all helped to better define different oil spill scenarios and to plan for responding to them. Modelling for two deepwater drilling operations, Salamat and North Uist, indicated that international protected areas could potentially be affected from the worst case oil spill scenario. As a result, additional mitigations were put in place to try to reduce this risk.

Understanding the environmental and socio-economic sensitivities can help inform response planning. Across our operating regions, we are developing enhanced, high resolution sensitivity maps aided by the use of technologies such as remote sensing satellites. In 2012 we used high resolution satellite imagery to enhance sensitivity maps of coastlines in Brazil and Africa.

We continued to focus on the use of oil spill dispersants as a response tool for major oil spills in the deep-sea environment remained a focus area in 2012. We continue to gain a greater understanding of dispersants and their use through scientific research programmes. These programmes are conducted individually, for example, by studying the ‘oil-degrading bacterial communities’ in our operating regions; and collectively, through joint industry programmes such as IPIECA/OGP and the API.

Biodiversity in marine environments

Collaboration on lessons learned

We seek to work collaboratively with government regulators in planning for oil spill response, sharing lessons learned and our technical approaches, with the aim of improving any potential future response.

Sharing lessons learned

Our performance

Number of oil spills

In 2012 the amount of oil remaining in the environment after recovery operations increased slightly to 320 thousand litres from 280 thousand litres in 2011. The number of oil spills to land and water that were over one barrel (159 litres) or more, remained the same as in 2011 at 102.

We also measure losses of primary containment, which includes any unplanned or uncontrolled release of material, excluding non-hazardous releases (such as water) from a tank, vessel, pipe, railcar, or other equipment used for containment or transfer.

Safety performance - Number of losses of primary containment

Volume of oil spilled

The volume of oil spilled was approximately 0.8 million litres in 2012. The chart below excludes the volume of oil spilled in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The US government and third parties have announced various estimates of the flow rate or total volume of oil spilled from the Deepwater Horizon incident. The multi-district litigation pending in New Orleans will address the amount of oil spilled. While we understand that an estimate of flow rate or total volume spilled is of interest to many of our stakeholders, BP’s efforts to address the potential environmental and social impacts have not been limited by the precise volume of the spill.