Oil Spill Mediation & Cleanup Methods

The following are listed from more planet- and wildlife-friendly, to less Earth-friendly and more harmful listed lower. This scale is "to the best of our ability" with the information we have managed to gather about the sustainability impacts of each option. Each section below lists pros and cons of each method.

Booms

Human Hair

Dispersants

Burning

Tools

South America

• Portal Energético para América Latina "GEM’s Latin America Energy Portal offers a region-wide perspective on energy infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean, through interactive maps and thousands of wiki pages. The Portal synthesizes GEM’s research on nearly 5,000 projects throughout the region, including coal- and gas-fired power plants, oil and gas pipelines, oil and gas extraction sites, LNG terminals, solar farms, wind farms, coal terminals, coal mines and steel plants that meet a predetermined size threshold. Additional resources include country energy profiles, statistical data, reports, and links to organizations working towards a sustainable energy transition in Latin America and the Caribbean. ... 

To learn about the various components of each GEM tracker, read About GEM’s Trackers. To receive notifications on this project, please sign up for our mailing list. If you have questions about this project, please contact the Project Manager, Gregor Clark."

Resources

• NOAA: Shoreline Assessment Manual "This manual outlines methods for conducting shoreline assessment and using the results to make cleanup decisions at oil spills."

Educational & Training Opportunities

North America

USA

• Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) "a systematic method that responders use for surveying an affected shoreline after an oil spill. SCAT teams collect the data needed to develop a shoreline cleanup plan that maximizes the recovery of oiled habitats and resources, while minimizing the risk of injury from cleanup efforts."

Washington

• NOAA: Science of Oil Spills (SOS) "classes help spill responders increase their understanding of oil spill science when analyzing spills and making risk-based decisions. They are designed for new and mid-level spill responders."

Washington

• NOAA: Science of Oil Spills (SOS) "classes help spill responders increase their understanding of oil spill science when analyzing spills and making risk-based decisions. They are designed for new and mid-level spill responders."

Organizations

North America

USA

• NOAA: Office of Response & Restoration "Develop scientific solutions to keep the coasts clean from threats of oil, chemicals, and marine debris. "

Texas

• Commission Shift "is reforming oil and gas oversight in the state of Texas by building public support to hold the Railroad Commission of Texas accountable to its mission in a shifting energy landscape. The Railroad Commission of Texas is a state agency. Despite not being well known among Texans, the commission holds a position of national and global importance when it comes to oil and gas oversight.
  
  Together with our supporters and fellow advocates, we have established ourselves as an authority on the Railroad Commission. Local, state, and national media outlets and public officials routinely seek us out for guidance and comment on Railroad Commission issues."

Maps

International

• The Global Integrated Power Tracker (GIPT) (Interactive) is a multi-sector dataset of power stations and facilities worldwide. The tracker provides unit-level information on thermal power (coal, oil, gas, nuclear, geothermal, bioenergy) and renewables (solar, wind, hydro). The tracker includes data on unit capacity, status, ownership, fuel type, start year, retirement date, geolocation, and more. Each power facility is linked to a profile page, hosted on GEM.wiki, that provides further information.

• Global Energy Monitor's eight power sector trackers provide the source of underlying data: the Global Coal Plant Tracker, Global Oil and Gas Plant Tracker, Global Solar Power Tracker, Global Wind Power Tracker, Global Hydropower Tracker, Global Geothermal Power Tracker, Global Bioenergy Power Tracker, Global Nuclear Power Tracker."The Global Methane Emitters Tracker (GMET) "provides estimates of fossil fuel emissions at oil and gas and coal extraction sites, natural gas transmission pipelines, proposed projects and reserves, and attribution of remotely-sensed methane plumes.
  
  As of November 2023, the first version of the tracker includes methane emissions estimates for coal extraction and gas pipelines, attributions of remotely-sensed methane plume observations for oil and gas infrastructures in North America, and coal mine observations worldwide. The tracker will expand its remotely-sensed plume attribution coverage in future iterations. GMET also associates assets within GEM’s Oil & Gas Extraction Tracker to the methane emissions estimates developed by Climate TRACE."

• The Global Oil and Gas Extraction Tracker (GOGET) (Interactive) "is a global dataset of oil and gas resources and their development. GOGET includes information on discovered, in-development, and operating oil and gas units worldwide, including both conventional and unconventional assets. The dataset tracks the status, ownership, production, and reserves of each unit, as data is available. Units that have production of 1 million boe/yr or more and/or reserves of 25 million boe or more are included. The data is provided in both map and table format. Each unit included in the tracker is linked to a wiki page on GEM.wiki, which provides additional details, including references for the data."

• The Global Oil and Gas Plant Tracker (GOGPT) (Interactive) is a worldwide dataset of oil and gas-fired power plants. It includes units with capacities of 50 megawatts (MW) or more (20 MW or more in the European Union and the United Kingdom). For internal combustion units, or those units that have multiple identically sized engines, the 50 MW capacity unit threshold applies to the total capacity of the set of engines. The GOGPT catalogs every oil and gas power plant at this capacity threshold of any status, including operating, announced, pre-construction, construction, shelved, cancelled, mothballed, or retired. Units often consist of a boiler and gas or steam turbines, and several units may make up one power station. The map and underlying data is updated bi-annually, in February and August. Each plant included in the tracker is linked to a wiki page on GEM.wiki, which provides additional details."

• The Global Oil Infrastructure Tracker (GOIT) (Interactive) is an information resource on crude oil and natural gas liquids (NGL) transmission pipeline projects and their development. Currently, GOIT attempts to include all global crude oil and NGL transmission pipelines of any status, though availability on this infrastructure varies across countries and regions, and some are researched more completely than others. An interactive map shows pipeline routes, and tables allow users to access additional data on each project. Both the map and table can be filtered, and more information is provided on project-specific wiki pages housed on GEM.wiki. The sources used during research and data collection are cited in each project’s wiki page. The internal GOIT database and wiki pages are updated continuously throughout the year, and an annual release is published and distributed with data summary tables."

Recursos en Español

• Portal Energético para América Latina "GEM’s Latin America Energy Portal offers a region-wide perspective on energy infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean, through interactive maps and thousands of wiki pages. The Portal synthesizes GEM’s research on nearly 5,000 projects throughout the region, including coal- and gas-fired power plants, oil and gas pipelines, oil and gas extraction sites, LNG terminals, solar farms, wind farms, coal terminals, coal mines and steel plants that meet a predetermined size threshold. Additional resources include country energy profiles, statistical data, reports, and links to organizations working towards a sustainable energy transition in Latin America and the Caribbean. ... 

To learn about the various components of each GEM tracker, read About GEM’s Trackers. To receive notifications on this project, please sign up for our mailing list. If you have questions about this project, please contact the Project Manager, Gregor Clark."

North America

• View the Status of Deepwater Horizon Restoration Projects "resulting from the historic $8.8 billion Natural Resource Damage Assessment settlement."

USA

• View the Status of Deepwater Horizon Restoration Projects "resulting from the historic $8.8 billion Natural Resource Damage Assessment settlement."

Texas

• Inactive Wells Map "Number of inactive unplugged wells by Texas County. Source: Railroad Commission of Texas. Inactive Well Aging Report.
  
  Inactive wells are those with an active operator that have been inactive for at least 12 months. These wells do not meet the definition of “orphaned wells.” Operators are still responsible for plugging these wells."

• Orphaned Wells Map "Number of orphaned wells by Texas County. Source: Railroad Commission of Texas. Orphan Wells with Delinquent P-5 Greater Than 12 Months.
  
  Orphaned wells have no active operator on file with the Railroad Commission of Texas. The wells on this list have been inactive at least 12 months, and the operator’s organization report (P-5) has also been delinquent for at least 12 months."

North America

USA

California

• Oil Spill Prevention and Response Grants