About Us

For the last forty years, Clean Gulf Associates (CGA) has been a not-for-profit oil spill response cooperative that was solely created for the benefit of the Gulf of Mexico Exploration and Production (E&P) Industry. This Association provides the offshore oil industry with state-of-the-art spill response equipment and highly trained responders to ensure the protection of the Gulf of Mexico and its ecosystems. With continuous response coverage across the Gulf of Mexico, CGA offers a variety of equipment capable of providing resources in the open water environment to meet the spill response needs of our membership. 

CGA was formed on August 1, 1972 and reorganized May 1, 1997. In 1972, the original roster of members listed 33 producing companies. As of May 15, 2013 that number is 113 plus 12 Associate Members. 

CGA provides a conduit for all member companies to have access to oil spill response equipment and personnel while sharing the costs over a large membership, thereby minimizing or eliminating the need for each member to stockpile or fund personnel to conduct on water oil spill response, dispersant operations, insitu-burn, and wildlife rehabilitation services.The membership includes both major oil companies and small independent oil companies. In terms of membership, CGA is one of the largest industry supported oil spill response cooperatives in the United States. Clean Gulf Associates is an enterprise owned and operated for the benefit of those utilizing its services. 

Mission Statement

CGA’s sole purpose for its existence is to provide oil spill response resources and personnel to respond to oil spills on the open water for our E&P membership.  Below is CGA’s Mission Statement:

“Clean Gulf Associates is committed to maintaining a state of the art continuous oil spill response capability with equipment and highly trained and experienced personnel that are ready to meet the on-water oil spill response needs and requirements of our membership.”

Vision

CGA’s vision is to be the oil spill response provider of choice for rapid open water response for our E&P membership.  Below is CGA’s Vision that reflects this sentiment:

“First Choice, First Called”

Goals and Objectives 

To fulfill our mission and vision for CGA, the below goals would need to be realized. The goals center on the need to maintain our existing and future equipment, respond to member spills with trained personnel, engage our response partners in both the government and industry and be a versatile organization to meet our membership’s needs.  The goals and objectives for CGA are summarized below:

• Operate and maintain state-of-the-art membership owned inventory of oil spill response assets
• Provide highly trained, experienced and sufficient workforce capable of responding to a long term unsecured oil spill incident
• Conduct all operations in a safe and effective manner
• Provide CGA owned resources and contracted surge capability to meet the worst case discharges of our members
• Provide alternative response technologies to meet member response needs
• Provide oversight and management of existing contracted response resources
• Assist member companies to meet their oil spill preparedness needs
• Provide the membership advocacy to regulatory agencies
• Continue to be innovative and proactive in enhancing future spill response capabilities for its membership
• Contribute expertise to the response community to build a more efficient and effective National Response System
• Provide a versatile, nimble and flexible organization capable of adapting to or growing to meet exigent circumstances
• Educate membership, response partners and regulatory agencies on the capabilities of CGA
• Continuously evolve to ensure the organization is situated to provide services as needed to the membership for the next 40 years and beyond

    Executive Director           

Frank Paskewich has served as the Executive Director of Clean Gulf Associates (CGA) since 2007. During his tenure as Executive Director, CGA has dramatically expanded its extensive oil spill response capability including acquisition of a new retrofitted BT67 turbo prop dispersant aircraft, a significant increase in CGA owned mechanical recovery and contracted surge equipment that has quadrupled CGA’s effective daily recovery capacity, and an improved wildlife rehabilitation capability. Prior to this position, he served in the U.S. Coast Guard for 26 years, retiring at the rank of Captain while serving as Captain of the Port in New Orleans, LA.  He served as the Coast Guard's Incident Commander for response operations during Hurricane Katrina, and has been involved in numerous responses over the last two decades including the Houston Fire and Floods in 1994, the 5000 barrel Buffalo 292 oil spill in Galveston Bay, the explosion to the OMI Charger in the Houston Ship Channel, the 500,000 gallon Westchester spill on the Mississippi River in 2000, the 8000 barrel well blowout in Bayou Perot, LA in 2007 as well as the DM 932 oil spill in 2008 in downtown New Orleans. A graduate of the Coast Guard Academy, he also holds a Masters Degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan and is a licensed Professional Engineer.

Assistant Executive Director

James Hanzalik is currently serving as the Assistant Executive Director of Clean Gulf Associates.  He is a retired veteran of 24 years with the United States Coast Guard. His most recent USCG assignments include serving as the Chief of Response and Incident Management at the Eighth Coast Guard District.  During the recent Deep Water Horizon oil spill, he served as the Federal On Scene Coordinator, Deputy Area Commander for Pollution Response and the Incident and Deputy Incident Commander for the Incident Command Post in Houma, LA. In his prior assignments at the Eighth District, he served as Operations Officer on the National Strike Force Gulf Strike Team and as Deputy Commander of the National Strike Force.  His responsibilities included leading team responses to oil, chemical spills, natural disasters including hurricanes and floods in along the Gulf Coast of the United States and the Caribbean.  He has also served on the Coast Guard’s Incident Management Team, the USCG’s representative to the Interagency Board (IAB), and was the Co-Chair for the Regional Response Teams for Federal Regions VI, VII and VIII.

Vice President, Clean Gulf Associates Services

Frank Palmisano is currently serving as Vice President of Clean Gulf Associates Services, the primary service provider for Clean Gulf Associates (CGA) oil spill response equipment. His current responsibilities include, oversight and management of the daily operations of Maintenance and Response, Accounting and Safety. He has been associated with CGA for over 23 years, previously through Halliburton Services and the Marine Spill Response Corp. In his prior assignments he served as CGA Program Manager, CGA Area Response Manager and Site Supervisor. His responsibilities include leading team responses to oil spills along the Gulf Coast of the United States for the CGA membership. He has been involved in numerous significant spill events over the last 23 years including the Tanker Mega Bourg in the western gulf in 1990, Tanker Westchester on the Mississippi River in 2000, the 8000 barrel well blowout in Bayou Perot, LA in 2007, the DM 932 barge oil spill on the Mississippi river in downtown New Orleans as well as the recent Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. His background and experience leans heavily in the mechanical field as he holds numerous certifications in Marine Diesel, Hydraulics and Marine Electric. He is a member of the CGA Technical/Operations Subcommittee.

Clean Gulf Associates Executive Committee

David McBride