oil & gas unintentional releases

Since 1995, Occidental’s oil production has increased by nearly 160 percent. Over this same period, the total amount of oil unintentionally released to the environment has averaged about 0.001 percent compared to oil production.

In 2003, for all Occidental oil and gas operations, more than 70 percent of the oil spill incidents involved releases that were less than 10 barrels, and 75 percent of the produced water spill incidents involved releases that were less than 20 barrels.

Should an oil spill occur, liquids are quickly recovered and oil-impacted soil typically is treated by natural bioremediation methods. Generally, the impacts of salt, which is the primary contaminant in a produced water release, are managed by rinsing the soil with fresh water.

Preventing unintentional releases is an important goal in Occidental’s oil and gas operations. The HES program addresses spill prevention in several ways, including investing in technology to detect and prevent pipeline corrosion, operator training programs, auditing and inspection.

Additional information is available in our HES annual report.

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