Publications

Macondo well blow-out incident is the largest marine oil spill in the history of petroleum industry to date. It was estimated that about five million barrels of oil were released from the Macondo well causing damage to marine and wildlife habitats as well as fishing and tourism industries in the Gulf of Mexico. This incident has certainly served as a wake-up call for the oil and gas industries globally to assess the severity of the damage (in every sense) that marine oil spills can cause, and to treat them as very real risks.While this did not happen in Indonesia, the stark reality is that oil related disasters are an ever-present threat to Indonesian waters - the threat is potentially greater with the increase in the deepwater exploration activities in Indonesia. Having a robust oil spill response preparedness to cope with and effectively respond to such disasters is thus proved to be very crucial.Indonesia has adopted a Tiered response philosophy into its response management system and has put in place several mitigating arrangements including a National Oil Spill Contingency Plan, effective implementing legislation and minimum levels of oil spill response equipment. It should be recognized, however, that there are still gaps within the current response management system which need to be plugged to ensure preparedness.This paper will review the countrys overall oil spill response preparedness including the Tier 2 and Tier 3 response arrangements and also provide insights into how the national oil spill capability can be enhanced to enable rapid oil spill response to avoid negative impacts on the countrys precious ocean and coastal ecosystems.The focus of this paper will be on the importance of working-together - the phrase which represents the principle of a combined and integrated approach to response between the government, oil industries and the response organisations, recognised as the way forward to overcome the present challenges and hence to step up the countrys oil spill response preparedness.