A NOVEL METHODOLOGY FOR NET ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFIT ANALYSIS (SPILL IMPACT MITIGATION ASSESSMENT)

ABSTRACT A key objective for any oil spill response is to minimize the impacts to ecological, socio-economic and cultural resources at risk. To that end, the contingency planners and incident managers have traditionally utilized a formal or informal Net Environmental Benefit Analysis (NEBA) for selecting the most appropriate response option(s) to minimize spill impacts and promote recovery. The processes used to conduct a NEBA have varied considerably between industry operators, though the outcomes in terms of strategy development have been similar. This variation in NEBA approaches can lead to challenges with communicating the underlying basis of response strategies to stakeholders. The oil industry published updated guidance in 2015 to explain the general principles of the NEBA process and facilitate stakeholder involvement. However, with industry’s increasing reliance on NEBA to enhance the transparency of response strategy development, a consistent methodology for conducting formal NEBAs was required. In response to the above issue key industry Associations (API, IOGP and IPIECA) initiated a collaborative project on developing a qualitative NEBA methodology that can be utilized if other, fit-for-purpose NEBA methodologies are not applicable or available. Industry has also begun transitioning to a more representative term for the NEBA process which is Spill Impact Mitigation Assessment (SIMA). Therefore, the SIMA term is used henceforth but it is important to note that the method described herein is not exclusive to the SIMA term and, as with NEBA, only represents one of many approaches that can be utilized to conduct a SIMA. This qualitative methodology is designed to give a consistent approach to larger or higher consequence oil spill scenarios, where multiple spill response options are being considered and a formal SIMA is warranted. Several industry spill response specialists and an independent expert participated in this project, resulting in the development of Guidance on Implementing Spill Impact Mitigation Assessment (IPIECA-IOGP-API 2017 in press).