Planning Ahead and Staying Prepared

Prevention is a key component of our efforts to fight accidental pollution and includes:

• Designing facilities that are increasingly reliable, safe and efficient.
• Conducting maintenance and inspection campaigns on a very regular basis.
• Using leak detection devices.
• Scheduling regular audits.
• Selecting means of transportation and routes that limit the risk of accidents.

Given the nature of our activities, we have a duty to be prepared for an emergency at all times. We have therefore developed emergency response plans for each of our sites posing a risk of marine or freshwater pollution. These plans are prepared with the assistance of external experts such as CEDRE¹ in France and are constantly updated.

In 2009, we introduced a tool for the self-assessment of pollution response preparedness at our sites. Training sessions and full-scale drills are also organized with the competent authorities, including fire departments, harbor masters’ offices and national navies. A total of 246 equipment deployment drills were carried out in 2010.

Lastly, to be able to intervene rapidly anywhere in the world, we have:

• Emergency response procedures that can be activated 24/7.
• Assistance agreements with specialized organizations like Oil Spill Response and Clean Caribbean and Americas, which have pollution control equipment and can respond to spills in most of the world's seas and oceans.

1. CEDRE is a French organization that conducts research into accidental water pollution.

Getting Better at Tackling Major Spills

The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 and the subsequent oil spill led us to review our pollution control policy and organization. Our objective was to ensure that we have the capabilities necessary to respond to a similarly disastrous event, despite the low probability of such an event occurring.

All of our internal pollution control expertise was pooled together in a cross-business task force jointly steered by our Sustainable Development & Environment Department. The work being carried out aims to meet the highest standards, applicable to all of our host regions.

The effectiveness of our emergency response plans was reevaluated in terms of how appropriate they are to each situation — proximity of nature reserves, economic activities on the coasts affected — and our operational resources and support, such as product and dispersant supply and transportation capabilities. We have also tightened our training requirements, stepped up the frequency of drills, and worked on protocols for managing our potential responders.

We are improving our real-time oil slick observation capabilities so that we can better direct resources and update our control strategies frequently. The complex challenges related to satellite imaging techniques and the modeling of oil slick changes require constant innovation.

The possibility of broadening the range of our technical response solutions is also under study. In this area, the task force has focused mainly on applying dispersants directly to the pollution source and on the controlled burning of oil spills offshore. R&D programs, both internal and in partnership with the industry, have been initiated to assess the effectiveness and environmental impact of implementing these procedures and related best practices.

The Fast Oil Spill Team (FOST)

A pollution emergency response drill carried out by the FOST
(Fast Oil Spill Team)

Based near Marseille, France, the Fast Oil Spill Team (FOST) is one of Total’s internal resources for responding quickly to water pollution incidents. It has pollution control equipment and can act in European and West African waters. The team is staffed with firefighters seconded from the Marseille marine fire department. Accredited to train field response teams, the FOST regularly conducts training sessions and drills at our sites.