Environment

For over three and a half decades, LOOP has safely and successfully received, stored and delivered more than twelve billion barrels (1.91 billion m³) of crude oil to U.S. refineries while protecting the communities and natural environment of southern Louisiana.  There have been no major oil spills at LOOP since operations began in 1981.  Our spill record is exemplary in terms of minimal spill volumes.  On average, less than 0.00000011 barrel of oil has spilled per million barrels of oil transported.

LOOP recognizes its obligation to protect the community and the environment within which it operates.  LOOP accomplishes this stewardship by:

• Continuously monitoring the integrity of its pipelines with a real time computer based leak detection system capable of identifying the size and location of any leak in terms of leak rate, barrels lost and location.
• Having real time information from the sophisticated line surveillance system noted above facilitating a rapid response to a leak event thus minimizing the environmental impact by isolating the source of the leak and dispatching repair and clean-up crews.
• Periodic in line inspections of its crude oil pipeline utilizing a “Smart Pig”.
• Weekly integrity checks by divers of marine hoses utilized for transporting crude oil from offloading vessels to the LOOP pipeline system.
• Weekly overflights for visual inspections of the pipeline corridor.
• Visual inspections within the pipeline using a robotic system with remote video monitoring capabilities.
• Utilizing a fleet of sophisticated vessels that patrol the Port area and support the marine operations. The largest of these vessels, the LOOP Responder, is a 7,000 – horsepower tractor tug capable of assisting any supertanker if it loses power or steering while entering/offloading/exiting the LOOP restricted safety zone.
• Maintaining an array of oil containment, recovery and remediation equipment capable of responding to an incident or oil release.
• Maintaining a Facility Response Plan that accommodates changing realities and new technologies.
• Reinforcing readiness and instilling good operating practices by testing its Facility Response Plan during annual “spill drills” that simulate potential incidents.
• Working closely with federal, state and local agencies during annual drills and throughout the year to integrate resources and plan responses to theoretical accidents.

In addition to the actions noted above, as required by its federal and state licenses to operate, LOOP performs extensive environmental monitoring to ensure that its operations do not adversely impact the environment.  As a part of that initiative, LOOP maintains an erosion monitoring and mitigation program on the beach at its pipeline crossing and right of way.
 

LOOP Environment and Security Protection