ConocoPhillips has developed an integrated global emergency response process. The process includes response capabilities and crisis management plans at the corporate, regional and local level. All plans include regular training, equipment maintenance and review of procedures.
ConocoPhillips is a member of the tier three oil spill response organizations that cover the regions of the world in which it operates. Membership in these cooperatives extends company access to resources both equipment and trained personnel – that can provide immediate emergency assistance.
ConocoPhillips participates in and helps coordinate Spill of National Significance (SONS) drills – mandated by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 – which are conducted every two to three years under the direction of the U.S. Coast Guard. One of several emergency response exercises ConocoPhillips engages in, SONS drills are designed to foster significant improvements in the preparedness, prevention and oil spill response efforts of the U.S. government and the petroleum industry. The drills, funded jointly by government and industry, typically involve a year of planning by the major public and private sector participants.
In April 2004, trained ConocoPhillips personnel joined more than 1,100 other incident responders from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Coast Guard, the government of Mexico, the U.S. and Mexican Navies, the state of California, another oil company and numerous spill response contractors to practice implementing their oil spill contingency plans. The scenario was a vessel collision, a ship explosion and two major oil spills – all in the same morning, off the California coast. Drill participants staffed local unified command posts in San Diego and San Pedro, California, supplemented by a national incident command center in Los Alamitos, California, and a response center in Ensenada, Mexico.