API | Blog

Hurricane Season is Preparation Season

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Mark Green
Posted May 22, 2018

Hurricane Season 2018 finds our industry, the refinery and pipeline sectors and associated industries prepared to protect energy production facilities and infrastructure that are vital to keeping Americans well supplied, even during severe weather conditions.

That was the message from natural gas and oil and other energy-related sectors during a conference call with reporters. The 2017 hurricanes, Harvey and Irma, confirmed the importance of pre-event training, established emergency protocols, coordinated communications and overall preparation – which our industry and others already are undertaking as June 1, the official start of hurricane season, approaches. API was joined on the call by the Petroleum Marketers Association of America (PMAA), American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), American Gas Association (AGA), Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) and the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA).

Major weather events test preparations; we and our energy partners are focused on being as prepared as possible for this season.

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Dialogue is Key to Getting Offshore Well Control Rule Right

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Mark Green
Posted September 14, 2015

Safe, responsible energy development in the Gulf of Mexico is vital to the U.S. economy and job growth, as well as U.S. energy and national security. Each of these points likely will come up during a U.S. House Natural Resources Committee hearing on the impact of federal policies on energy production and economic growth in the Gulf, Tuesday in New Orleans.

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Hurricane Season = Preparedness Season

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Mark Green
Posted June 9, 2015

With another hurricane season upon us, it’s timely to briefly review the ways the oil and natural gas industry is prepared for conditions that could impact industry operations, particularly in the Gulf Coast region and Gulf of Mexico – home to more than 45 percent of U.S. refining capacity and about 17 percent of the nation’s oil and 5 percent of its natural gas production.

While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is predicting below-normal activity in the Atlantic region (which includes the Gulf), industry still takes a number precautions and has response plans in place in the event of a serious storm – wise, considering the potential impacts to facilities, regional and national economies and the environment.

You can read about this in detail in this hurricane fact sheet.

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Capping Stack: A Positive Outcome from a Tragic Accident

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Jane Van Ryan
Posted April 18, 2011

It looks like a child's toy gyroscope on steroids, and it has the technology necessary to stop the flow from a well blowout on the ocean floor. It's the capping stack developed and built by a consortium of oil companies in response to the unprecedented Deepwater Horizon disaster that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico a year ago.

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