Firefighting training is done at all our operations.

Ready to Respond

Nexen takes extensive measures to prepare an effective response to emergency situations involving our employees or operations. The reason is simple. We want to protect our employees, contractors, communities and facilities from the impact of any unplanned event.

To reach an appropriate level of preparedness, we develop and maintain emergency response and management plans at all levels of the organization. These are supported by training plans and schedules that are regularly tested through drills and exercises.

We work closely with first responders (police, fire response and hospital staff), regulators and other stakeholders in our operating communities to review, test and revise these plans. These practice sessions help us continuously improve and refine our emergency response and management capability.

Offshore Spill Response

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico brought to the foreground some important questions for the oil and gas industry and our stakeholders about risk management, emergency preparedness and spill response.

At Nexen, we applied the lessons learned from this tragedy and worked with our contractors, regulators and peers to reinforce environmental and safety prevention measures as well as our response capability across our offshore operations. Our actions included:

  • Hiring additional environmental compliance specialists to ensure our Gulf of Mexico operations are properly resourced to respond to new and more stringent U.S. regulations.
  • Upgrading the blowout preventers (BOPs) on Ensco Rig 8502 to increase the operating pressure to the blind and shear rams – two separate components of the BOPs. This upgrade ensures the equipment meets new regulations from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for deepwater subsalt wells.
  • Strengthening our ability to respond to a spill by joining the Helix Well Containment Group, a consortium of deepwater operators in the Gulf that have come together with the common goal of quickly responding to a subsea spill in order to protect employees, communities and the environment. Containment capabilities include access to an intervention vessel with the ability to fully operate in up to 10,000 feet of water, a 15,000 psig (pound-force per square inch gauge) capping stack and the ability to capture and process 55,000 barrels of oil per day and 95 million cubic feet of gas per day.
  • Obtaining membership in the Marine Spill Containment Response Corporation which allows us to work collectively with others in the offshore industry to strengthen our emergency response plans. This membership includes access to 11 additional spill response vessels with high capacity skimming and storage systems as well as the addition of 60,000 feet of ocean boom inventories to enhance offshore oil recovery collection.
  • Maintaining membership in Clean Gulf Associates which provides us with access to three clean-up vessels and 25,000 feet of ocean boom inventories intended to quicken response time offshore. Clean Gulf Associates also provides resources to assist with near-shore protection and recovery.

Partner of Choice

Kevin McLachlan, VP of Global Exploration discusses how Nexen is applying industry lessons learned in our offshore operations.