News Releases 2019

C-NLOPB Hosts Productive Spill Prevention and Response Forum

For Immediate Release
December 4, 2019

The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) hosted its first annual Spill Prevention and Response Forum in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador on December 3-4, 2019.

The Forum featured over 100 participants from regulatory agencies and government departments, oil and gas industry companies that are, or will soon be, active in the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Area, along with fishing industry representatives. The Forum agenda, presentations and list of attendees will be available on the C-NLOPB website in the coming days.

“The Forum provided an opportunity for regulators, governments and those ‘on the water’ to undertake a collective review of lessons learned from spills in our offshore between April 2018 and August 2019,” said Jeff O’Keefe, C-NLOPB Chief Conservation Officer (CCO) and lead Forum organizer. “I am pleased that the presentations and discussions reflected participants’ commitment to continuous improvement, with particular emphasis on ensuring operators have all the right people, processes and equipment in place for incident prevention and preparedness.”

In early October, the CEO of the C-NLOPB, Scott Tessier, wrote to industry operators and new entrants underscoring the need for better industry performance. That correspondence outlined the C-NLOPB’s expectation that industry develop an action plan for basin-wide improvements in environmental and safety performance.

In its letter of response, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers committed, on behalf of members producing and exploring in the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Area, to developing and implementing such a plan. It will focus on safe, responsible and reliable operations through continuous improvement.

At this week’s Forum, the C-NLOPB’s CCO focused on the following four principles of spill response:

1. Health and safety as the top priority;
2. Protection of the environment with an emphasis on protecting sensitive resources;
3. Operational decisions should maximize net environmental benefit; and
4. Operational response should include a wide range of resources and technology.

Mr. O’Keefe also provided four key priority areas for further work to be undertaken by the industry, from the C-NLOPB’s operational assessment of lessons learned from recent spills:

1. Better surveillance and monitoring of subsea assets for producing facilities;
2. Review and update operator contingency plans to better meet government agencies’ expectations;
3. Improve initial data collection and sharing; and
4. Update a marine hydrocarbon spill response capability report to reflect lessons learned.

Mr. Tessier presented a number of related C-NLOPB initiatives that are in place or underway, including:

• strengthening the approach to offshore regulatory audits and inspections to ensure a more thorough, integrated and effective approach that better targets the greatest risks;

• new regulatory resources for risk assessments, offshore safety and environmental compliance;

• clearer, more robust adverse weather protocols following from the severe offshore storm of November 2018, which include enhanced mitigating measures to reduce and manage risks leading up to, during, and after severe weather;

• efforts by the regulator to support governments in regulatory modernization that will enable innovation, including in the areas of spill prevention and response;

• enhancing the regulator’s Non-Compliance and Enforcement Policy, in part to better communicate the role of the C-NLOPB and its strategies for compliance, prevention and deterrence; and

• continued C-NLOPB collaboration with other regulators, both in Canada and internationally, through the International Offshore Petroleum Environmental Regulators, the North Sea Offshore Authorities Forum and the International Regulators Forum, which Canada will chair for the next three years.

The C-NLOPB is also continuing its formal investigations into the four significant spills since April 2018, along with its investigation into the major injury with potential for fatality that occurred offshore in September 2019. Decisions on enforcement actions will follow completion of these investigations.

Media Contact:

Lesley Rideout
Communications Lead
(709) 778-4224
(709) 725-2900 (cell)
lrideout@cnlopb.ca


News Releases 2019

DateUpdate
2019, Dec 19C-NLOPB Suspends Production-Related Operations on the Terra Nova FPSO
2019, Dec 4C-NLOPB Hosts Productive Spill Prevention and Response Forum
2019, Nov 6C-NLOPB Releases Results for 2019 Calls for Bids
2019, Sep 5C-NLOPB Response to FFAW Press Conference and News Release regarding Calls for Nominations in Eastern Newfoundland and Jeanne d’Arc Regions
2019, Aug 29C-NLOPB Issues Calls for Nominations for Offshore Land Parcels
2019, Apr 3C-NLOPB Announces 2019 Calls for Bids in the South Eastern Newfoundland and Jeanne d’Arc Regions
2019, Feb 5C-NLOPB Announces Scheduled Land Tenure System Updates