Leading oil companies team up to build rapid-response system to tackle offshore accidents

Four of the biggest oil companies in the world said yesterday that they were committing $1 billion to set up a rapid-response system for dealing with deepwater oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico, a move that would shore up public confidence in the industry following the BP disaster which bared the lack of response preparedness in the industry in the face of a major accident.

The voluntary effort involves building a set of modular containment equipment that would be on standby for emergency use.

The effort comes as oil companies seek to persuade the Obama administration to allow resumption of deepwater drilling currently banned.

The moratorium came into effect following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on 20April which spewed millions of gallons of oil into the gulf.

According to officials the spill has come as a wake-up call for the industry, with its multi-billion dollar investments in development of oil and gas resources in ever-deeper waters offshore but neglect of development of spill-response technology that could be effective in thousands feet of water.

Environmentalists, members of Congress and federal and state officials have already sounded out to the industry that it would have to contend with tougher regulations with resumption of drilling.