Description
The Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), is issuing a Request for Information (RFI) to enhance spill risk analysis for proposed Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas activities. BOEM seeks information from industry, academic institutions, Tribal governments, non-governmental organizations, state and federal agencies, and the public on approaches for assessing oil spill risk. The goal is to advance spill risk analysis that supports environmental analyses and consultations. BOEM is looking for approaches that are practical, transparent, and timely, and that support the Bureau's decision-making needs. Some key areas of focus include:
• characterizing the chance of a spill occurring from proposed OCS activities
• considering a wide range of possible spill locations
• incorporating spill likelihood, possible spill volumes, environmental and ocean conditions, infrastructure information, and resource sensitivity
• accounting for oil behavior such as weathering, movement at the surface, and movement below the surface
• identifying, describing, and communicating uncertainty in underlying data, assumptions, and environmental conditions
BOEM also seeks information on data types that support spill-risk analysis, methods to describe data limitations and uncertainty, and general categories of input information that support hypothetical spill analysis.