Deepwater Horizon Inspiration for 21st CleanGulf

The 21st edition of CleanGulf was held on 30th November and 1st December 2011 in the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas, USA. The conference was still centred around this theme. The angle this year emphasised much more the lessons learned from the biggest spill in US waters so far in order to prevent from happening anything like it again. The conference attracted 2,000 delegates who were able to sit in more than twenty sessions - from Emerging Technologies for Spill Response, Debris Removal Operations to Subsea Containment and Inland Case Studies. 

Rear Admiral Paul Zukunft, assistant commander for Marine Safety, Security & Stewardship at the United States Coast Guard was pointing out that the complexity and expansiveness of this incident was so big that it will have impact for the years to come. Not only regarding the immediate response, but also on policy and methods for restoration shoreline etc.

 

Next to the sessions there were six extended workshops, on for instance Dispersants, Oiled Wildlife Response or Oil Spill ‘Risk Based' Management. In between delegates were invited to go and visit the tradeshow. Many made use of this opportunity, making themselves familiar with the latest developments of the more than 200 companies that were exhibiting their products and services on the exhibition floor.

 

Next year's CleanGulf will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana. A lot of the delegates were already looking forward to next year's conference. Throughout the years it has proven that when CleanGulf return to the Big Easy, numbers of visitors are always higher.