NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED Flotta Oil and Gas Terminal Pollution Control Measures 2010

NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED

Flotta Oil and Gas TerminalPollution Control Measures 2010


• With the recent high profile and media coverage of the BP incident, It is hard to believe that man-made pollution is not a new problem.

Pollution Control Measures 2010

• Pollution can be either natural or man-made, such as this year’s volcanic eruption in Iceland, which was natural, and the recent high profile man made oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico and China.


Pipeline Explosion Dalian, China - 17 July 2010

The incident occurred when workers injected desulphuriser into a pipeline as part of the refinement process and a fireball was initiated

Workers did not follow approved procedures



The blaze raged at the harbour for 15 hours, shrouding the city in smoke



Burst pipeline spewed enough oil to cover 140 square miles with about 47,600 gallons of crude.

By comparison, the Gulf of Mexico spill is estimated to have been between 94 to 184 million gallons of oil.


Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill – April 2010






• With the Riding of the Marches and the agricultural show season just past, it is hard to believe that the horse was once one of the world’s worst sources of pollution and the petrol driven motor car, was seen as the environmental saviour of the world.




• The presence of 175,000 horses in New York City, wrote one 1908 authority, is “an economic burden, an affront to cleanliness, and a terrible tax upon human life.” The solution to the problem, agreed the critics, was the adoption of the “horseless carriage.”

• The faithful, friendly horse was charged with creating the very problems today attributed to the automobile: air contaminants harmful to health, noxious odours, and noise. At the beginning of the twentieth century, in fact, writers in popular and scientific periodicals were decrying the pollution of the public streets and demanding “the banishment of the horse from American cities” in vigorous terms.



• In New York over 10,000 tons of manure and 40,000 gallons of urine were produced a day.

• The streets and rivers flowed with slurry and dead horses; wardens would scrape a passage for females with long skirts to enable them to cross the road (payment was required).

• In 1880, New York City removed 15,000 dead horses from its streets, 41 a day.

• The stench and flies were everywhere; this was also seen as a great source of human disease.



• One writer in American City noted that the good motor truck, which was immune to fatigue and to weather, did on the average of two and a half times as much work in the same time as the horse and with one-quarter the amount of street congestion.

• As difficult as it may be to believe for the modern observer, at the time the private automobile was widely hailed as an environmental savoir. In the span of two decades, technology eradicated a major urban planning nightmare that had strained governments to the breaking point, vexed the media, tormented the citizenry, and brought society to the brink of despair.



• Today, as we seek more sustainable power resources from wind and tide, the oil industry, once seen as the environmental saviour of the world, is seen as a polluter of the environment.

• So how in Talisman do we prevent pollution from happening in the first place?



Flotta Oil Terminal


• When volatile oils are spilled in confined or even unconfined spaces there may be a risk of fire and explosion.


• The various crude oils coming into the Flotta Terminal from a number of different wells is known as Flotta Blend.

• In the initial stages of a Flotta crude oil leak to sea or land, due to the evaporation effect it would be treated as a potential fire/ explosion risk.

• Flotta Blend (stabilised for export) is a medium crude oil.




The Terminal - Prevention

• Pollution Control starts with the Terminal’s design (Environmental and Safety standards).


• Using the correct materials in the construction of the Terminal.

• Ensuring the competence of the workforce in their specialist disciplines, maintaining and enhancing their skills.

• Ensuring that the Terminal plant and equipment is maintained to the appropriate standard.

• Having onsite integrity inspection engineers monitoring for corrosion.


• Have the correct operating and maintenance procedures in place.


• Identify the hazards and risks associated with the Terminal and meet the requirements of the Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations (COMAH) and Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2000 (IPPC).

• Have adequate Fire, Gas and Leak Detection systems in place.

• Have and test incident pre-plans associated with the site’s hazards.

• Exercise the workforce and the emergency plans.

• Work and train with the Local Authority and emergency services.


• Tankers arriving at the Terminal are vetted, a process used to determine whether a vessel is suitable, and in a condition, to be loaded at the Terminal.

• Oil companies began carrying out vessel inspections and assessments in order to raise standards on tankers associated with their own shipping activities. This inspection regime developed into a uniform inspection system under the umbrella of the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF).

• Ship vetting is an in-depth assessment of the quality of a ship and its crew, as well as the quality of the owner, operator and manager.– Complies with international and relevant national legislation

(i.e. Oil Pollution Act of 1990 for entering US waters).

• Ship vetting is presently limited to vessels being used for the transport of bulk hydrocarbons.



• To minimize the risk of a incident involving a tanker that is loading, transporting or unloading a cargo in which Talisman is an interested party.

– This assessment regime has resulted in raising the standards of oil tankers (and their operators) at the same time as lowering the number of incidents and spills resulting from them.


Why is vetting of ships so important?


Emergency Response - Mitigation

• The main sea areas covered for pollution by the Terminal are:


– The Terminal’s main loading Jetty.

– The single point mooring (SPM).

– The Terminal’s main oil pipeline.

– Terminal pollution to land and sea.


• The Terminal operates a fire and pollution Emergency Response Team.


• A small leak/spill would be dealt with by the Terminal staff only.

• A larger leak/spill would be dealt with by the Terminal staff, Talisman Aberdeen, OIC Marine Services plus external help. (Orkney Business Ring, Oil Spill Response Ltd)

• A very large spill would be dealt with by the Terminal staff, Talisman Aberdeen, OIC Marine Services plus external help and may evoke the National Contingency Plan.


• The Terminal holds a large, comprehensive stock of pollution counter measure equipment.


• This equipment must be fit for purpose, maintained, tested and easily transported to any area in Orkney.

• The object of the first response to a tanker spill at the Terminal’s jetty, is to boom the affected area and pump the oil back to the Terminal’s ballast system where oil and water would be separated.



The Pollution Control Building at the Flotta Terminal

Test facilities at the Terminal - this picture shows a mop recovering oil from the test tank


The following photos show the Terminal on exercise …




Deployment of fast response booms located either side of the Jetty



One of the Terminal’s Work boat‘s towing the boom to encircle the tanker



A shore boom in use and tractors pumping oil and water back to the Terminal



Hydraulic pump in action, again pumping oil and water back to the Terminal ballast area.



Heavy duty boom being deployed from the Terminals Stumpy jetty

Special trailers designed to operate from piers or shore to deploy heavy duty booms




– The Flotta Oil Terminal has operated successfully for 34 years without a major incident, with good grace and hard work I hope it will operate for another 34 years without a major incident.

THE END


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NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED Flotta Oil and Gas Terminal Pollution Control Measures 2010