GALVESTON, Texas – Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) preparedness analysts and engineers recently conducted an unannounced oil spill drill and deployment exercise off the coast of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico. The exercise, conducted on June 8, tested Genesis Crude Oil, L.P.’s ability to execute its oil spill response plan.
As part of the drill, Genesis Crude Oil, L.P. was required to respond to a simulated discharge originating from a rupture in one of its pipeline facilities by deploying the appropriate oil spill recovery equipment. A 95-foot vessel operated by Clean Gulf Associates deployed from Galveston Channel as the operator coordinated from offices in Houston and Houma, La.
BSEE staff with the Oil Spill Preparedness Division boarded the response vessel to evaluate the use of built-in brush skimmers and boom in approximately 59 feet of water. Scientists from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management along with staff from the U.S. Coast Guard and Texas General Land Office also observed the exercise. Additional BSEE staff monitored the simulated response actions with Genesis Crude Oil, L.P.’s emergency management team in its command center in Houma, La.
Government Initiated Unannounced Exercises are designed to give BSEE the opportunity to evaluate, on a no-notice basis, an operator’s access to necessary resources and test the effectiveness, performance and viability of oil spill response plans, oil spill equipment and spill management recovery vessels. This was the third deployment exercise that BSEE has conducted within the current year.