The Legacy Award recognises individuals and organisations that successfully implement measures beyond regulatory requirements to prevent, prepare for, or respond to environmental incidents. Ironically Alaska, the scene of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, is a member state of the Task Force.

The nomination was made to ExxonMobil’s U.S. marine transportation affiliate, SeaRiver Maritime, its second Legacy Award since 2002.

"Having been nominated for this award … is truly a great honour. The Legacy Award provides testimony to our continuous efforts to achieve high performance in this important aspect of our business and our strong commitment to work cooperatively with regulatory officials, industry partners and the communities in which we operate. It would not have been possible without the dedication of our personnel at sea and ashore to safety and environmental excellence. They are truly deserving of this prestigious award," said SeaRiver president Will Jenkins.

One Perth-based observer with years of experience in dealing with the ExxonMobil culture cynically said the preparedness simply meant it had perfected its tactic of blaming its employees and contractors for operational disasters, instead of admitting corporate responsibility and duty of care.

The project manager, who also has an extensive legal history, said its preparedness simply meant having a scapegoat ready. He has over 25 years of North Sea and Australian development and construction experience.

“The speed and effectiveness with which it blamed both the Exxon Valdez disaster on the tanker skipper, and the way it blamed the Longford tragedy on the poorly trained control room operators are classic, irrefutable indicators of a flawed culture.

“Compile that with Robert Olsen’s (Australian ExxonMobil chief) refusal to face the media post Longford and the way he left his external affairs bloke (Ron Webb - editor) to roast in the media glare the whole time was an unconscionable and transparent performance in shirking responsibility.

“Petroleum Club members may recall a presentation by the Worley crisis response team at the time of the Longford disaster. As professionals in this area, they described Olsen’s performance as woeful.

“If they think they can defend those performances, I’d be happy to debate them.”

This week ExxonMobil posted a US$21 billion profit.