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The Goliat field operated by Eni Norge AS (Eni Norge), with Statoil Petroleum AS (Statoil) as only partner, will be the first offshore oil field in the Barents Sea and the world's northernmost offshore oil field. The production will commence during the last quarter of 2013. The field is located in the south western part of the Barents Sea, relatively close to the coastline in an area perceived to be environmentally sensitive. The area has high political focus, especially on oil spill preparedness, and strict environmental requirements. The implementation of the Goliat oil spill preparedness will introduce new technologies and methods, which are the results of R&D projects and initiatives developed in cooperation with Statoil and the Norwegian Clean Seas Association for Operating Companies (NOFO). This will give an increased oil spill response capability, especially for the coastal zone, both for the Goliat field and for other oil and gas activities on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). It is also expected that this implementation will have a positive impact on oil spill preparedness in general and for access to new acreage on the NCS. This paper will address how the oil spill preparedness for Goliat will bring the coastal oil spill preparedness on the NCS up to a new level. Goliat will be the first field in Norway to implement permanent use of fishing vessels, a special acute phase task force, and an integrated field oil spill detection and surveillance system. The oil spill preparedness focuses on locally adapted solutions for quick and effective response. This paper will in addition, illustrate how the oil spill response planning and development has been conducted over several years and how the oil spill preparedness is being implemented for both the production drilling and production phase at Goliat. The paper is closely linked to the SPE paper 156795-PP "Coastal Oil Spill Preparedness Improvement Programme (COSPIP) and Memorandum of Understanding – Comprehensive Joint&Industrial project focusing on coastal oil spill challenges" (1). It is also related to the SPE paper 98593 "High resolution oil spill response planning for operations in a sensitive Arctic environment. Sharing information between operators, national authorities, local oil spill response groups, and the general public" from 2006 (2) and SPE paper 126598 "IA for the Goliat Offshore Oil Field Development. World's northernmost offshore oil development?" from 2010 (3).

In 2001, the Norwegian Clean Seas Association For Operating Companies (NOFO) completed a three year R&D-program for development of a dynamic, risk based oil spill response regime for the entire Norwegian continental shelf, including coastal areas and the shoreline. A central element of the new regime is an oil spill contingency planning system, where all relevant information are made fully available on the Internet. The web based Oil Spill Contingency Planning System (OSCPS) has proved to be an important and useful result of the project, and the responses from authorities as well as stakeholders have been positive. The system contains guidelines and standards that have been adopted by the industry, resulting in standardized and comparable site specific analyses. In addition to the information available on the Internet, a suite of Geographical Information System (GIS) tools have been developed and made available for all NOFO member companies. These tools have proved useful in analyses, training and desktop exercises. This paper provides an overview and highlights of our new OSCPS and Geographical Information System (GIS) tools, presenting examples of use and lessons learned. The paper also presents the responses from authorities and stakeholders to this open and transparent approach.

Statoil is the largest operator on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, is operating 42 assets and has an exploration activity in the order of 20-25 wells per year. In 2011, Statoil decided to undertake a full review of the basis for the oil spill response level for their activities, and establish a fully documented, transparent documentation of their approach. In Norway, operators are required to perform environmental risk and oil spill emergency preparedness assessments for all activities, as a basis for oil spill response plans. These assessments are of a complex and quantitative nature, and it has for a while been realised that there needed to be a better link between well characteristics and the oil spill response level. In the early phase of the development, it was decided to separate issues according to their nature. Issues related to company policy on overall level of spill response were identified and addressed in a separate process, as were issues relating to science and technology. From this, further work proceeded on the three main topics a) Policy decisions on spill response scaling criteria, b) algorithms for calculating effect of various response measures, and c) fact finding on issues of operational windows, capacities and effectiveness. As part of the development, all Company fields in production were reviewed, and oil spill response level adjusted and extended to include near shore and shoreline response plans. Sensitivity studies were undertaken to identify critical elements in the progression from blowout and kill studies to near shore spill response plans. Lessons learned include the overall importance of selecting correct data on reservoir characteristics, sufficient resolution in oil spill modelling, and applying consensus values for spill response capabilities throughout the assessment process. To ensure an adequate basis for near shore spill response planning, GIS technology was applied to produce a set of thematic spill response maps, in A1 size PDF format, for 37 of the most sensitive areas along the Norwegian coast. A strategic plan was also developed for each area. All maps, documentation, GIS data sets and other results of this development work has actively been made available to operators on the NCS, to the Authorities and to spill response organizations.

The Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) extends from latitude 56° to 71°. Along the 82,000 km coastline and offshore, biodiversity is high, with large populations of fish, seabirds and marine mammals. In terms of oil and gas production, there is an increasing diversity in technical structures, water depth, and oil types, as recovery proceeds to smaller reservoirs. This calls for a high degree of flexibility in oil spill response strategies. According to Norwegian regulations, alternative response strategies must be analysed in a standardized way, including Net Environmental Benefit Analyses (NEBA). For this purpose, a GIS based method has been developed for net environmental benefit analysis of different oil spill response options for the NCS. Through a GIS interface, the user can interactively select a release location, an oil type, and a month for the oil spill. A standard map is generated, showing areas where different oil response strategies pose a net environmental benefit, net environmental loss, or a conflict.