Publications

Deepwater exploration and production is fast becoming an important component in Indonesia’s oil and gas industry. There is a strong thrust from government for increasing the offshore exploration and production activities to meet the growing domestic and international demand for oil and gas. As with any exploration and production activities, there are challenges and difficulties and the deepwater sector is no different. In fact, the technical challenges of deepwater drilling are even greater as deeper maters add greater complexity (and thereby added risk) to oil exploration and production operations. Similarly, responding to an oil spill from a deepwater release is a major undertaking for any oil company. While some of the lessons from the Macondo spill incident are still being learnt, this incident has undoubtedly served as a game-changer and a wake-up call to the global oil and gas industry to continuously strengthen the oil spill response, planning and capacity. This paper will explore the response strategies for responding to a deepwater subsea release based on information developed by the U.S. Joint Industry Task Force (JITF), a working group established by the International Oil and Gas Producer: Global Industry Response Group (GIRG) and the UK Oil Spill Prevention and Response Advisory Group (OSPRAG). It will also discuss the application of these strategies in the Indonesian context and identify areas for improvement that may exist within the current national oil spill response and preparedness capability. * Oil Spill Response Indonesia It is not the objective of this paper to set an industry standard in Indonesia. However, what the authors hope to achieve out of this study is to create awareness and to provide options to industry as to what we can do to better prepare ourselves for any future major events that could occur. The authors believe that by knowing our limitations, we can seek to improve our readiness and capability. Keyword: Deepwater, Oil Spill, Macondo Spill, Oil Spill Response, Oil Spill Preparedness