Under normal circumstances, a large number of offshore workers and staff from the heliport, the police and the municipality, would have participated as mock casualties.
However, the COVID-19 situation has forced the exercise management team to come up with an alternative scenario. The exercise is therefore carried out by extensive use of digital co-operation, explains Pål Erland, exercise supervisor and emergency response manager at OFFB.
Great value
“In practice, each participant will join tabletop discussions from his or her office or another suitable location, while at the same time, they’ll notify, coordinate, communicate and collaborate as they would normally do in a real-life situation. Even though we cannot meet physically, such an exercise will provide great value to everyone involved,” Erland says.
The participants include representatives from the police office in Florø in Vestland county, the state-owned company Avinor, which operates most of the civil airports in Norway, the Norwegian regional airline Widerøe, Kinn municipality, the security services provider Securitas, the helicopter company Bristow, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) and Neptune Energy’s emergency response organisation – comprising its 1st, 2nd (OFFB), 3rd and 4th line (UK). The exercise takes place between 09:00 and 14:00 hours.
Escalating offshore
The starting point for the exercise will be a security incident at the heliport in Florø. From there, it evolves to include the Neptune Energy-operated offshore installations and drilling rig Deepsea Yantai at the Gjøa field in the North Sea. To successfully manage such a demanding scenario, close collaboration, coordination and good communication between the parties involved are essential.
The exercise’s overall goal is to see how Neptune Energy – as an operator and in collaboration with its partners – may handle a security incident/legal offence starting at the heliport in Florø and escalating further to a petroleum field offshore, in the best possible way. The exercise will also be a test of the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association’s guideline 003 “Recommended guidelines for check-in and security checks at helicopter terminals”.
In addition, each participating organisation has its own set of exercise goals.
Must keep up the dialogue and collaboration
Ole Jacob Haug, OFFB’s managing director, is pleased to see that the cooperating actors are dedicating time and resources to take part in this type of exercise. He believes these exercises may be even more important during the ongoing COVID-19 situation.
“The activity level among OFFB’s members is high. We must maintain the contact between us, and continue the good collaboration we depend on during an emergency incident,” says Haug.
