While MSRC is at the ready to respond to oil spills of all sizes, our equipment and assets are available for spill prevention and mitigation as well. Working with the customer to understand their unique needs, we can provide a variety of services to help avert and lessen an oil spill event.
Pre-booming is the most common form of spill mitigation support that MSRC provides. Pre-booming typically is carried out in ports or harbors where a high-risk fuel operation is taking place. Alternately, if a vessel fuel tank, stern tube, or hull has been compromised during a journey, MSRC will pre-boom the vessel as soon as it comes into port at the request of the customer in case a leak develops.
MSRC’s barges have served as reliable emergency offloading resources that are immediately available in high traffic areas like LALB, Houston Ship Channel and Pascagoula. MSRC requires the requesting customer to source a licensed Tankerman to support the operation. MSRC can provide transfer hoses in excellent condition for operations involving its dedicated barges or other barges.
Aerial surveillance conducted immediately following an event or during other activities involving a risk potential for oil spills can provide early detection information to a responsible party, and also provide meaningful reassurance to regulatory authorities.
MSRC’s aerostat surveillance platform has been used to survey storage terminals following natural disasters resulting in facility flooding to monitor the integrity of the floating roofs in anticipation of a potential spill incident. The Aerostat has also been contracted to monitor subsea pipeline remediation projects for their duration to survey whether leaks were resulting from the work being done on the pipelines. MSRC’s aircraft and surveillance systems can be used to fly rights-of-way following a natural disaster or other incident to survey for leaks.
MSRC can provide standby spill response support for our Customer’s ship-to-ship transfers (STS) with vessels that have 1200+ ft of boom onboard, 100+ gallons of dispersant, and up to 200+ barrels of storage with our Fast Response Vessels or our 210 ft Responder Class Vessels. MSRC may provide this service at a pre-planned project rate as long as the standby support is not related to Federal AMPD requirements and is pre-arranged five days prior to the transfer. If a spill event occurs, then Schedule 3 Response rates will go into effect for MSRC’s stand-by resources.