Could there be an oil spill from the offshore drilling and production proposed off Florida?
For the foreseeable future any proposed development operations within 100 miles of the coast of Florida would be only for the development of natural gas fields. Even if a blowout were to occur, no oil would be released. Any pipelines proposed would carry only dry natural gas.

But don't they find oil with natural gas?
Sometimes they do in other areas, but the discoveries that have been made in the area off Florida (for example, the three discovery wells Chevron has drilled) are too deep (20,000 feet or more) and under temperatures too high (350° or more) for oil to physically exist.

What about spills from fuel stored on the platform?
It is unlikely that a fuel storage tank would lose its entire contents. If this event occurred when the tank were completely full, the tank's maximum capacity would be lost. The maximum capacity on the drilling unit used recently by a petroleum company was about 1600 barrels.

What about spills from crew and supply boats?
A small diesel spill is possible if there is an accidental leak from a vessel's fuel tank. This type of spill is possible from any vessel in Florida waters. Since the number of trips of support boats to the proposed operations are not expected to alter the average vessel traffic off Florida, the risk of such a spill occurring off Florida waters would not be significantly changed.

Are there any other operations that could spill oil?
The MMS has identified one other possibility. A worse case situation would be if the supply vessel carrying diesel oil to the drilling rig lost all of its diesel during transfer operations - this could result in a spill of about 1,800 bbl. The MMS can and has required mitigation during past drilling operations to minimize this remote possibility.

How would an oil spill be contained and cleaned up?
The MMS requires that all drilling or production operations on the OCS have an approved oil spill contingency plan that describes where the nearest equipment is located, where the trained personnel are, and how everyone is notified. Additional site-specific information that requires response capabilities specific to a worst case spill will be required. During drilling operations, a company can be required to have equipment staged on a dedicated vessel, located at the rig, that can immediately contain and clean up a spill. There is also oil spill equipment available at onshore bases in Alabama and Florida and one offshore Louisiana location; this equipment can rapidly be deployed to contain and pick up spilled oil. In nearby Mobile, Alabama, the U.S. Coast Guard maintains the Gulf Strike Team, one of three national centers for Federal spill response capabilities, with 38 personnel, 6,000 feet of boom, four types of skimmers and containment systems, support vessels, etc., that can be airlifted or trucked to a site.

Haven't OCS operations historically spilled a great deal of oil?
No. Since 1980, OCS operators have produced 4.7 billion barrels (bbl) of oil and spilled only 0.001 percent of this oil, or 1 bbl for every 81,000 bbl produced. In the last 15 years, there have been no spills greater than 1,000 bbl from an OCS platform or drilling rig. The spill risk related to a diesel spill from drilling operations is even less. During the 10-year period (1976-1985) in which data were collected, there were 80 reported diesel spills greater than one barrel associated with drilling activities, compared with 11,944 wells drilled, or a 0.7 percent probability of occurrence. For diesel spills greater than 50 bbls, only 15 spills have occurred, or a 0.1 percent probability.

Natural seepage of oil in the Gulf of Mexico (unrelated to natural gas and oil industry operations) is far more extensive. Researchers have estimated a natural seepage rate of about 120,000 bbl per year from one area (23,000 square kilometers) offshore of Louisiana.