Oil & Gas UK awards oil-spill capping contract
5 Aug 2010
London – Oil & Gas UK, on behalf of the UK’s Oil Spill Advisory Group (OSPRAG), has awarded the contract for engineering services to assess subsea capping and containment options for the UK continental shelf (UKCS) to Wood Group Kenny. The project is in response to dangers highlighted by BP’s on-going crisis in the Gulf of Mexico.
Wood Group Kenny will work with the OSPRAG Technical Review Group (TRG), with recommendations to be presented in September. The advice will guide OSPRAG in selecting potential contingency options for subsea capping and containment to be put in place in the UK.
Brian Kinkead, Oil & Gas UK’s supply chain director and leader of OSPRAG’s TRG, said: “The UK oil and gas industry has successfully drilled around 7,000 wells under a robust, fit for purpose regulatory regime which is held in the highest esteem globally.
“However, following the Gulf of Mexico incident, we have been asked to consider additional tertiary capping and containment options. These will augment our existing, well-developed oil spill response plans which include an industry mutual agreement to respond through Oil Spill Response (OSR), which provides for surveillance aircraft, aerial dispersant application and large stocks of containment equipment.”
Bob MacDonald, Wood Group Kenny’s operations director, said: “Wood Group Kenny is pleased to be able to offer its expertise in the important task of augmenting the UK’s capability to respond to oil spills in its particular operating environment. In light of the Gulf of Mexico incident, we are fully aware how important it is for the UK to ensure and demonstrate that it can effectively cap and contain spills in a timely manner and as a result, we will be assigning significant resources to this project.”
OSPRAG is liaising with the Gulf of Mexico Joint Industry Task Force to ensure technology developments and lessons learned are shared. The group as also working with industry across Europe and other parts of the world through the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers.
