The U.S. Departments of Interior and Energy co-hosted a forum last week on deepwater blowout containment, and our chairman and CEO, Rex Tillerson, spoke at the event with other government and industry representatives. It was a welcome opportunity to reflect on the response to the tragic Deepwater Horizon accident and spill and clear up some public misperceptions.

Rex mainly talked about the unique capabilities that government and industry have to prevent and respond to such a crisis – and why it’s important to uphold those roles.

For example, we both have a role to play in prevention:

• Government plays a critical role in helping prevent incidents by maintaining stable oversight and a level playing field for all competitors. This ensures that everyone is playing from the same rulebook and the industry is held accountable.
• The oil and natural gas industry also plays a role in prevention by upholding high standards of safety and operational integrity – by properly designing wells for the range of risk anticipated, following established procedures, building in layers of redundancy and more.

It’s also clear we both have a role to play in response:

• The federal government, as on-scene commander of the Joint Unified Command, must coordinate a timely response using the appropriate local, state and federal governmental entities and assist the responsible parties in marshalling the required resources for cleanup and well control.
• The oil and natural gas industry must have the knowledge and technology in place to respond to an incident. That’s why we’re designing and developing a Marine Well Containment System for the deepwater Gulf of Mexico with our partners Shell, Chevron and ConocoPhillips.

Rex also talked about areas for potential cooperation between industry and government moving forward. You can read his full comments on ExxonMobil’s website.

Let us know the ways you think government and the industry can improve their performance in oil spill prevention and response.