“It is essential to meet in peacetime, as we call it, to connect with those responsible for planning and executing various tasks in crisis situations, and to secure a common, complete understanding. This makes it easier to find each other when it really counts,” says Pål Erland, Neptune Energy’s point of contact and emergency response manager at OFFB.
This is not the first time OFFB and Neptune Energy assemble collaborating actors for an emergency preparedness gathering in Florø. But the pandemic has made it more difficult to meet in person.
Erland is very pleased that 30 people from Neptune Energy, A/S Norske Shell, Avinor, Kinn municipality, Securitas, Quality Hotel, the police, Equinor, Bristow and Sintef were able to dedicate this day to get to know each other better, to discuss professional issues and enhance their skills.
This year’s assembly was particularly focused on collaboration at the operators’ centre for evacuees and next of kin (OSEP) in Florø. Kinn’s municipal chief physician Kjell-Arne Nordgård and Truls Eide, professionally responsible doctor at Neptune Energy, presented their own roles and gave advice on how to interact.
Against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine and the threat level in Norway, representatives from Norway’s oil and gas industry were also introduced to ways of handling these challenges.
“Neptune Energy, Avinor, the police, Equinor and research director Maria Bartnes at Sintef all gave valuable input on various topics, and suggested tools we can utilise in our coming emergency planning activities. The key points are to prepare oneself, and to exercise and practice together with relevant actors,” Erland says.