With the busiest part of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico hurricane season fast approaching, the U.S. oil and natural gas industry is taking steps to ensure the safety of facilities, employees and communities during heavy weather events.

Leading operational safety and emergency management experts from the American Petroleum Institute (API), American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), American Gas Association (AGA), Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) and Energy Marketers of America (EMA) have implemented a plan to enable resiliency throughout the energy supply chain.

During a press conference held Wednesday (May 26), representatives from all five industry trade groups emphasized the importance of system redundancies and maintaining safe operations to avoid a weather-related outage. To help the industry prepare, API has created an Oil and Natural Gas Industry Preparedness Handbook, with the support of its industry partners, to illustrate how local responses can be aided by local, state and regional associations, and established relationships with governments and communities. It also shows how corporate and federal capabilities can facilitate efficient response and recovery at the local level.

While resources and information are often collected at the regional or national level, it is the facility operators and those on the ground, who will have the best ability to assess their systems, identify needs, and execute the work needed to restore services.

The handbook provides a common-sense approach for oil and gas owners and operators, local and state industry associations and public sector partners, to build the necessary capabilities to effectively manage the information flow that often becomes congested during disruptive events.

The handbook is not a play book for response, but rather a guide to understand how information flows, between and among levels of the government and industry, and how that flow can be managed and utilized to facilitate, rather than hinder, response. To access the API handbook click on:

https://www.api.org/news-policy-and-issues/safety-and-system-integrity/oil-gas-industry-preparedness-handbook

Source - www.worldoil.com