When it comes to the topic of oil spills, preventing them is our number one focus. However, as an industry, we want to collaborate amongst other operators as well as with response organizations to make sure that we have a robust oil spill response regime.

Regularly throughout the year, operators conduct training on oil spill response with our vessel crews and the personnel that work offshore. Synergy is a great opportunity for us to come together and work collaboratively with other operators as well as oil spill response organizations.


Thanks very much for coming to the Synergy oil spill counter-measures exercise today. It’s a really important day for Suncor and all the other operators, and Suncor is hosting this exercise on behalf of Hibernia, Husky, and Statoil.


So, will they do a loop now, we got it in the water there, is that the idea?...

Yep. Yeah, so what they’ll do is, the vessel will start to move, that’ll allow the boom to sort of open up and make that nice U-formation. Ah, and then they’ll deploy the skimmer out into the water.

Working collaboratively between the operators helps us ensure that our oil response programs are in place and are effective and that we learn from each other to make sure that best management practices are in place.

The Synergy exercise is important because it demonstrates our ability to deploy the equipment in a safe and effective manner. You don’t deploy oil spill equipment in five minutes. It’s a process that takes time to do it well and to do it properly. But that’s important to make sure that we don’t hurt anyone and that we’re able have equipment that’s going to be capable of responding in a spill.

In addition to demonstrating what we do, it’s also a great way for us to learn and that’s another tool for us to help us identify how we continuously improve our oil spill response capability here on the East coast. So, again, any suggestions you may have, please feel free to pass them along.

Oil spill response is a daily activity for us. Through regular training of vessel crews, maintenance of equipment and exercises and drills, it’s something we do on an ongoing basis to make sure that our people are capable of responding to an offshore spill.

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