This year’s issue 3 of the Norwegian scientific journal ‘Magma’ is dedicated to exploring how strategic thinking and management are affected by the pressure from the coronavirus pandemic.
The subject is discussed in four peer-reviewed articles. One of these is «Håndtering av langvarige beredskapshendelser: Læringspunkter etter covid-19-utbrudd på West Phoenix» (The handling of long-term emergency incidents: Learning points from a COVID-19 outbreak on board the West Phoenix drilling rig) is written by safety researcher Riana Steen and Alf Inge Molde, head of the strategic crisis communications team at OFFB.
Article summary
Today’s emergency preparedness plans are founded on traditional risk and vulnerability analyses. These include frameworks and procedures for the handling of defined situations of hazard and accident (DSHA). Turbulent changes, increased mutual dependency across organisations, as well as rising uncertainty, create challenges beyond the boundaries of a traditional emergency preparedness approach.
The handling of emergency incidents linked to the corona pandemic, highlights the way uncertainty, time pressure and escalating consequences strengthen the need for resilience in emergency preparedness work.
Through this study, the authors are taking learning points from the way the COVID-19 outbreak on board the West Phoenix drilling rig in August 2020 was handled at an operational and strategic level.
Based on method triangulation, the article explores the roles of the oil companies’ emergency preparedness organisations, and the manner in which they handled the outbreak. Analysing the empirical findings, the authors underscore that the key to resilient emergency response lies in coordination and the ability to improvise, together with openness, collaboration and trustful communication between the actors involved.
The full article is available at Magma’s website (In Norwegian only). External link..
Further reading at OFFB.no:
Research: New modelling method enhances emergency preparedness
In order to close the gap between emergency response plans and the way tasks are carried out in real life, far more factors and aspects must be mapped and included in the planning, Riana Steen believes. In a new research paper written in collaboration with the Operator's Association for Emergency Response (OFFB), she explains how this can be done.
Read the article here (internal link).
Sharing experiences from the coronavirus outbreak on West Phoenix
A close dialogue, a focus on details and the ability to improvise were some of the key factors in the handling of the COVID-19 outbreak on board the West Phoenix drilling rig in the beginning of August 2020.
Read the article here (internal link).
Studies OFFB and Safety-II
HSE-work is facing a paradigm shift, safety scientist Riana Steen believes. She now sets out to study the way principles and models in resilience engineering and Safety-II may strengthen crisis response and coordination inside the emergency preparedness room. (Article in Norwegian).
Read the article here (internal link).
