From Reservoir Characteristics, Through Environmental Risk Assessments to Oil Spill Response – Lessons Learned from a Comprehensive Systematic Development by an Operator

Statoil is the largest operator on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, is operating 42 assets and has an exploration activity in the order of 20-25 wells per year. In 2011, Statoil decided to undertake a full review of the basis for the oil spill response level for their activities, and establish a fully documented, transparent documentation of their approach. In Norway, operators are required to perform environmental risk and oil spill emergency preparedness assessments for all activities, as a basis for oil spill response plans. These assessments are of a complex and quantitative nature, and it has for a while been realised that there needed to be a better link between well characteristics and the oil spill response level. In the early phase of the development, it was decided to separate issues according to their nature. Issues related to company policy on overall level of spill response were identified and addressed in a separate process, as were issues relating to science and technology. From this, furth...