Energy Emergency Management
When an incident escalates, command structure is the difference between contained and catastrophic. What you say in the first hour matters as much as what you do.
The Problem
Most operators have an emergency action plan. Far fewer have one that has been tested by anyone who was not involved in writing it. The plan reads well in a binder and then meets an actual incident, where the on-call number rings to someone who left the company, the notification sequence assumes cell coverage the site does not have, and nobody has decided who speaks to the press.
The first hour is where plans fail. Not on the technical response — crews are usually competent at the thing in front of them — but on command structure, notification discipline, and the parallel demands nobody rehearsed. A regulator on speakerphone. A reporter at the gate. A family member who heard something.
A plan that has not been stress-tested is a document, not a capability. The difference only becomes visible on the worst day you will have.
What We Deliver
- Emergency action plans (EAPs): site-specific, regulator-ready, and stress-tested
- Tabletop exercises and full-scale scenario drills with operator, plant, and terminal crews
- Incident command planning and on-site response coordination
- Midstream and LNG scenario planning: line rupture, vapor release, and transfer and loading emergencies
- Crisis communications and PR strategy: media response, stakeholder messaging, executive prep
- Pre-incident operational risk assessments and threat modeling
- Regulatory readiness documentation (RRC, PHMSA, BSEE, OSHA) and audit support
- Mutual aid and agency coordination with local fire, EMS, and emergency management
- 24/7 emergency response activation for active sites
- Post-incident review, root cause analysis, and corrective action
Who We Serve
Upstream and midstream operators across Texas, South Dakota, and other producing states, from two-rig independents to multi-basin operators. Gas processing plants, gathering and pipeline systems, and LNG facilities and their marine terminals, plus the drilling and service contractors whose plans need to hold up under regulator scrutiny.
Why Acacia Lake
Our principals have stood on active wellsites during incidents, and that experience shapes every plan we write. Command structure and notification discipline carry from a wellsite to a compressor station to a liquefaction plant. Most plans miss the first press call, the regulator on speakerphone, the family member asking what happened. We plan for all of it.
How An Engagement Runs
- 01
Discovery
Site walk-downs, a read of the existing plans against the assets they actually cover, and interviews with the people who would be running the response — not only the people who wrote the binder.
- 02
Diagnosis
A written gap assessment against regulatory requirements and against the failure modes your site can realistically produce, with each gap ranked by consequence and by how quickly it can be closed.
- 03
Execution
We write the plans, build the notification and command structure, and then test them — tabletop first, then full-scale drills with the crews who would actually respond. Findings from the drill go back into the plan.
- 04
Stewardship
Plans decay as sites, staffing, and regulations change. We keep them current, run refresher exercises, and stay reachable for activation when something happens.
What You Receive
- Site-specific emergency action plans written to survive regulator review
- An incident command structure with named roles, succession, and a notification sequence that has been dialed end to end
- Tabletop and full-scale exercise packages, plus written after-action findings
- Crisis communications materials: holding statements, stakeholder messaging, and executive preparation
- A regulatory readiness file mapped to RRC, PHMSA, BSEE, and OSHA expectations
- Post-incident review and corrective action documentation when an event occurs
Common Questions
- We already have an emergency action plan. What would you add?
- Usually the test. Most plans we review are technically adequate and operationally untested — the notification tree has stale numbers, the command roles have no named succession, and nobody has rehearsed the communications side. We find those gaps by exercising the plan, not by reading it.
- Can you respond during an active incident?
- Yes, for sites we have worked with. We maintain 24/7 activation for active engagements, because a plan is worth considerably more when the people who wrote it can be reached while it is being used.
- Do you handle the regulatory filings themselves?
- We produce the documentation and support you through audits and reviews. The filings remain yours, made by your people, which is where regulators expect the accountability to sit.
- How disruptive is a full-scale drill to operations?
- It is scheduled around your operations, and we design the scope so the disruption is proportionate. A tabletop costs a conference room and a few hours. A full-scale drill costs more, and it is the only way to find the failures a tabletop cannot surface.
- Do you work outside Texas?
- Yes. Our base is the Texas Gulf Coast and we work across other producing states. Command structure and notification discipline do not change at a state line; the regulatory overlay does, and we account for it.