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OIL SPILL TARGET SETTING
Most offshore oil companies set zero spill targets. From a moral perspective this is the only target that can be set, as spills are never intentional. From a practical perspective, zero spill targets are not very realistic and encourage under reporting.
For offshore operations, I recommend the following target setting method, which is benchmarked against the performance of the UK offshore oil and gas industry.
First, translate the spill frequency ranking of an individual installation into one of the six performance bands as defined in the first table.
Band
Spills per year
A
<1
B
1 and <2
C
D
E
F
Secondly, translate the spill size ranking of the installation into one of the six performance bands as defined in the second table.
Band
Tonnes of oil spilled per year
A
<0.25
B
C
D
E
F
Thirdly, place the ranking of the installation into the following risk matrix. Do this for as many years of data as possible. Finally, determine a realistic target based on the historic performance of the installation. For instance, if the past performance of the installation is D/D; set a target of C/C or if it was F/B; set a target of E/B.
Please note that the numbers in the matrix reflect the 2000-2005 performance of the UKCS installations. The numbers indicate numbers of installations. Installations in the upper-right corner (F/F) are relatively high risk, whereas installations towards the bottom-left corner (A/A) can be considered low risk.
Spill volume band F
1
5
-
3
2
3
E
1
-
1
-
D
2
-
1
2
-
C
-
2
2
B
2
6
8
2
1
1
A
32
14
11
6
1
2
A
B
C
D
E
F