CEO INSIGHTS – ROBERT LIMB
OIL SPILL RESPONSE LTD Wherever you go in the marine spill industry you meet people whose CVs seem to have Oil Spill Response Ltd (OSRL) on it somewhere. Their imprint on the industry is significant and its culture of quiet professionalism weaves its thread throughout the industry and in many areas they set the benchmark for the industry which all seek to follow.
Members receive; support in risk
The oil companies, whose oil it was
management, staff and management
that spilled, were heavily fined and
training, OSRL incident management
their reputations adversely affected. To
support and deployment of OSRL resource
mitigate further losses, they started to
in support of exercises and, importantly,
play a more active role in developing
incidents wherever they occur in the world.
their own response organisations. In the UK, British Petroleum (BP) set up a large
For members it is a fixed price contract
oil spill response base in Southampton
with some variables related to deployment.
and established, what is now Vikoma, a company manufacturing oil skimmers and
For OSRL it means they know their income
retention booms on the Isle of Wight.
but do not necessarily how much they are With oil companies becoming energy
going to need to spend to support their
companies and the necessary reduction
members. Consequently, it is not a blank
in the use of hydrocarbons as the
cheque!
Enroute to a wireline logging job in Bu Hasa field in Abu Dhabi, UAE
world pushes to net zero, I was keen to understand how OSRL are preparing for
However, they have more experience than
this. So, it was a pleasure to sit down, face
any business in the industry in the number
to face, for a couple of hours with Robert
of unplanned events and incidents they are
Limb, its CEO, to discuss OSRL and his
going to have to deal with in an average
thoughts on the future of his business and
year!
amongst various oil companies and in
the industry in general. There is a myth that runs through the
Subsequently the BP base was syndicated
This unusual ownership and membership
1985 Oil Spill Response Ltd (OSRL) was
structure is a legacy of OSRL’s formation.
formed to continue this pioneering work with funding support from four other
industry that OSRL is different to every other business in the industry in that they
A succession of oil tanker losses in
international oil companies. This is the
have a pot of gold, the oil companies, who
the late 1960s and through the 1970s,
basis of the existing member/shareholder
pay for everything they do.
caused considerable environmental
structure.
harm and negative publicity for the oil They do not. OSRL has 162 members
companies who owned the vessels. It also
Consequently, in March 1989 when the SS
divided into three categories of
demonstrated that governments in general
Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef in Prince
membership https://www.oilspillresponse.
had little defence against large spills.
William Sound in Alaska spilling 10.8 million gallons of crude oil, OSRL staff were
com/membership/our-members/ :
PARTICIPANT MEMBERS
These significant pollution incidents,
amongst the first response organisations to
occurring in relatively close succession,
arrive at the incident from outside Alaska.
– they are shareholders and are primarily
caused Europe to wake up to the risk it
companies involved in oil exploration and
carried in allowing lightly regulated vessels
(For keen followers of oil spill response
production. These members are generally
to navigate their waters with inadequate
history you can read a more in depth
oil companies or are working directly
maritime pollution incident plans as
article here in Spill Alert Issue 20 https://
providing services for them; e.g. Trafigura.
demonstrated by the response to each of
issuu.com/ukeirespill/docs/spill_alert_20_
This is where the majority of OSRL income
these incidents. Government responded
april/s/12064677)
comes from.
with tighter legislation.
ASSOCIATE MEMBERS – they pay a membership fee based on the level of risk eg a tariff per platform, per refinery, per vessel etc; A good example of membership here is: Associated British Ports Southampton or Prax Lindsay Terminal Limited.
NATIONAL AUTHORITY MEMBERS – these are governmental organisations or agencies, like the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Irish Coast Guard, Rijkswaterstaat Zee En Delta, The Commonwealth of Australia -
SS Torrey Canyon (25-36 million gallons crude oil) off the Isle of Scilly on 18 March 1967. SS Walfra, (14 million gallons) off Cape Aghulas, South Africa in February 1971. SS Amoco Cadiz on the Portsall Rocks, Brittany, Bay of Biscay (220,800 tons of crude oil) March 1978.
Since then, OSRL has responded globally with trained staff, with its contracted and/ or directly owned dispersant platform. The training department, first established in 1991, shares knowledge and experience from subject matter experts and responders within the industry and OSRL has built a global network of 16 bases manned with centrally employed and local employees.
ITS WORK IS NOW DIVIDED INTO THREE SPECIFIC AREAS OF ACTIVITY:
Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources.
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