O'Brien's Response Management is the largest

oil spill An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into th ...

management company in the United States

Background

Company founder Jim O'Brien fought his first oil spill in 1969 as an officer with the United States Coast Guard. In 1983 he retired to form his own company, O'Brien's Oil Pollution Service, known as "OOPS Inc.", in Slidell, Louisiana. O'Brien soon gained fame in the 1980s as the " Red Adair of oil spill cleanup". O'Brien also helped manage the

Exxon Valdez oil spill The ''Exxon Valdez'' oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989. ''Exxon Valdez'', an oil supertanker owned by Exxon Shipping Company bound for Long Beach, California struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef, west o ...

of 1989. Following that event the United States enacted the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, requiring ships to carry sufficient insurance and hire a management company to handle any oil spill. The company was bought by Seacor Holdings Inc. in 1997 and later renamed the O'Brien's Group, with O'Brien remaining as President. In 2004, the company helped clean 265,000 gallons of oil that spilled into the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock (village), New York, Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of N ...

from the Athos I. It oversaw recovery for the Murphy Oil Spill in Chalmette, Louisiana following

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

. In July 2007, the company oversaw remediation efforts when refineries near Coffeyville, Kansas spilled 71,400 gallons of oil into the Verdigris River during a flood. The company was also responsible for managing clean-up efforts after the

Cosco Busan ''Hanjin Venezia'', formerly named the ''Cosco Busan'', is a container ship. On 7 November 2007, it collided with the protective fender of the Delta Tower of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge in heavy fog. The collision sliced open two of it ...

spilled 58,000 gallons of bunker oil into the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

on November 7, 2007. It deployed approximately 1,500 workers to clean up that spill. As of 2007, O'Brien's Response Management represents approximately 400 shipping companies, 5,000 ships, and 200 oil and gas companies, and has worked on over 400 spills in the past three years.

References

External links

Witt O'Brien's
{{DEFAULTSORT:O'Brien's Group Companies based in Louisiana