ENHANCING RESILIENCE TO OFFSHORE OIL DISASTERS IN THE GULF OF MEXICO
PROCEEDINGS OF A WORKSHOP
Yee San Su, Kate Fisher, Joel Silverman, Jamie Biglow, Riddhi Suva, Sydney Steward, and Karina Khazmutdinova, Rapporteurs
Gulf Offshore Energy Safety Board
Gulf Research Program
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, DC
www.nap.edu
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This activity was supported by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Gulf Research Program Fund. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-26913-1
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-26913-X
Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.17226/26347
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Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Offshore Situation Room: Enhancing Resilience to Offshore Oil Disasters in the Gulf of Mexico: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26347.
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The Gulf Research Program (GRP) is one of seven major divisions of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The GRP’s mission is to develop, translate, and apply science, engineering, and medical knowledge to enhance offshore energy safety, environmental protection and stewardship, and human health and community resilience in the Gulf region in ways that empower its citizens. It supports innovative science, guides data design and monitoring, and builds and sustains networks that transform results to action.
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PLANNING COMMITTEE ON OFFSHORE SITUATION ROOM: ENHANCING RESILIENCE TO OFFSHORE OIL DISASTERS IN THE GULF OF MEXICO1
RICHARD SEARS (Chair starting January 29, 2021; Co-Chair until January 28, 2021), Stanford University
PATRICK A. BARNES, BFA Environmental and Limitless Vistas
PAUL G. GAFFNEY II (NAE) (until October 2019)
DAVID J. HAYES (Co-Chair until January 2021)
SHIRLEY LASKA (until August 2020)
JANE LUBCHENCO (until February 2021)
BRIAN M. SALERNO, Cruise Lines International Association
FRANCIS WIESE, Stantec
CHARLES R. WILLIAMS, Independent Consultant and Center for Offshore Safety (Retired)
MONICA WILSON, Florida Sea Grant
Project Staff
LAUREN ALEXANDER AUGUSTINE, Executive Director, Gulf Research Program
ELLEN BANNON, Research Assistant, Gulf Offshore Energy Safety Board (until June 2021)
ALEXIS BHADHA, Senior Program Assistant, Gulf Offshore Energy Safety Board
KIERRA CHINN, Communications Specialist, Gulf Research Program
LAUREN EVERETT, Senior Program Officer, Division on Earth and Life Studies (until March 2020)
NIKAELA FLOURNOY, Mirzayan Fellow, Gulf Research Program (until March 2020)
KARINA KHAZMUTDINOVA, Senior Program Officer, Gulf Offshore Energy Safety Board
JAMES PETTIGREW, Director, Gulf Offshore Energy Safety Board
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1 The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s planning committees are solely responsible for organizing the workshop, identifying topics, and choosing speakers or participants. The responsibility for the published Proceedings of a Workshop rests with the workshop rapporteurs and the institution.
Consultants
PALU ABADIA, MediaTank
SEBASTIAN BAE, Research Analyst, Center for Naval Analyses
JAMIE BIGLOW, Senior Research Specialist, Center for Naval Analyses
KATE FISHER, Senior Research Scientist, Center for Naval Analyses
NISHA MEHLING GALIONE, Senior Consultant and Facilitator, Compass Consulting
MISCHA HEDGES, MediaTank
MICHAEL KLEIMAN, MediaTank
ERIN MOHRES, Director, Homeland Security Center, Center for Naval Analyses
JEREMY SEPINSKY, Lead Wargame Designer, Center for Naval Analyses
JOEL SILVERMAN, Senior Research Scientist, Center for Naval Analyses
CHRIS STEINITZ, Senior Research Scientist, Center for Naval Analyses
SYDNEY STEWART, Research Specialist, Center for Naval Analyses
YEE SAN SU, Principal Research Scientist, Center for Naval Analyses
RIDDHI SUVA, Research Specialist, Center for Naval Analyses
RACHEL THOMPSON, Senior Consultant and Facilitator, Compass Consulting
REBEKAH YANG, Systems Engineer III, Center for Naval Analyses
GULF OFFSHORE ENERGY SAFETY BOARD1
RICHARD SEARS (Chair), Stanford University
SAN BURNETT (Vice Chair), BHP
KENNETH ARNOLD (NAE), K. Arnold Consulting Inc./Worley Parsons
NAJMEDIN MESHKATI, University of Southern California
ROLAND MOREAU, MacroSys
MONICA PHILIPPART, Ergonomic Human Factors Solutions
TERRANCE SOOKDEO, Baker Hughes
DUSTIN TORKAY, Seadrill Management
SYLVIE TRAN, Suncor Energy
LATONIA VIVERETTE BATISTE, WSP USA
MICHAEL WILL, MRW Operations Consulting, LLC
CHARLES WILLIAMS, Independent Consultant
DING ZHU, Texas A&M University
LYNDON ARSCOTT (NAE), Ex-Officio, International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (Retired)
Board Staff
ALEXIS BHADHA, Senior Program Assistant
KARINA KHAZMUTDINOVA, Senior Program Officer
JAMES PETTIGREW, Director
JENNIFER SUMMERS, Program Officer
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1 The National Academes of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s boards, forums, and roundtables do not issue, review, or approve individual documents. The responsibility for the published Proceedings of a Workshop rests with the workshop rapporteurs and the institution.
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Reviewers
This Proceedings of a Workshop was reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise. The purpose of this independent review was to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the National Academies in making each published proceedings as sound as possible and to ensure that it meets the institutional standards for quality, objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process.
We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this proceedings:
WILLIAM BURNETT, United States Navy
CRAIG CASTILLE, HWCG LLC
DAVIN HOLEN, Alaska Sea Grant
LIESEL RITCHIE, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
ANN HAYWARD WALKER, SEA Consulting Group
Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the content of the
proceedings nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this proceedings was overseen by SANDRO GALEA, Boston University. He was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this proceedings was carried out in accordance with the standards of the National Academies and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content rests entirely with the rapporteurs and the National Academies.
Acknowledgments
The Offshore Situation Room (OSR) was a collaborative effort; the successful execution of the event would not have been possible without the invaluable contributions of the speakers, moderators, and participants who actively participated in discussions and shared their experience, time, and forward-looking ideas. We wish to extend sincere thanks to all of the members of the planning committee for their contributions in scoping, developing, and carrying out this project. On behalf of the planning committee and the Gulf Offshore Energy Safety Board (GOES), we would also like to thank GOES Senior Program Officer Karina Khazmutdinova and Research Assistant Ellen Bannon for ably shepherding this activity through many changes and challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Gulf Research Program (GRP) and the planning committee would also like to give a special thanks to Admiral Thad Allen (U.S. Coast Guard, retired) for his continued support of the event and his opening and closing remarks.
The GRP also wishes to thank the Center for Naval Analyses for its expertise and insights in developing a set of serious games and seamlessly converting a highly complex, in-person event into a virtual environment after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Compass Consulting’s assistance and help with executing OSR is very much appreciated. Additionally, thank you to MediaTank for producing a set of videos that convey the importance of events such as OSR.
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Preface
More than a decade after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Gulf Research Program (GRP) convened a virtual event on consecutive half-days—the Offshore Situation Room (OSR)—to stimulate and enhance understanding of the current collective ability to address an offshore oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico region, develop new insights, and identify a collective agenda to help catalyze solutions before any future disaster. Designed uniquely around a set of four serious games,1 OSR represented an ambitious use of gameplay and virtual tools to allow 60 participants—from industry, academia, the community, various levels of government, and nongovernmental organizations—to share their experiences and perspectives and work toward building a shared agenda for moving forward. In doing so, the event aligns and contributes to the GRP’s broader vision of “a more safe, resilient, and sustainable future for the Gulf and all those who call the region home” or rely on its abundant resources.2
James Pettigrew, Director
Gulf Offshore Energy Safety Board
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1 Serious games are games built for an analytic, educational, and contextual purpose, not games that are designed simply to be played for fun.
2 The Gulf Research Program: 2020–2024 Strategic Plan is available at https://www.nationalacademies.org/_cache_32b6/content/4885770000227383.pdf.
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