Trening og øving – OFFB – Operatørenes forening for beredskap

"An important part of our mission to society is ensuring rapid, professional, and compassionate support for people affected by serious incidents. Through our collaboration with the Red Cross, we are adding further expertise and capacity to our emergency response organization," says OFFB Managing Director Ole Jacob Haug.

The partnership is an important contribution to further developing OFFB's ability to support affected individuals and next of kin during crises.

When serious incidents occur, access to accurate and up-to-date information is among the most important needs for both those affected and their families. For this reason, OFFB operates a dedicated Next of Kin call centre at Forus that can be activated at short notice.

The call centre is capable of handling inquiries around the clock and is staffed by five on-duty team leaders and a total of 35 operators. When activated, ten people can manage incoming calls simultaneously.

Experience and Compassionate Support Skills

Call centre operators provide information that has been quality assured and approved by the company responsible for managing the incident. At the same time, they must be prepared to assist people with a wide range of questions, reactions, and emotions. This makes confidence, expertise, and training essential

The Red Cross volunteers who have completed the training course come from Stavanger, Sandnes, Bryne, Sola, and Rogaland Red Cross. The group represents a broad range of experience and expertise, and all participants have received training in psychosocial first aid.

Many of the volunteers have experience from the oil and gas industry, while others work as nurses, teachers, or in other care-related professions. This combination of emergency response expertise and human-centred skills strengthens OFFB's ability to meet the needs of affected individuals and their families in challenging situations.

"A major advantage is that the volunteers are already mentally prepared and have reflected on what they may encounter in such a role. We are impressed by the competence and experience they bring, and we look forward to a long-term partnership that will strengthen the emergency response capabilities of both organizations," says Haug.

Working Together for Stronger Emergency Response

Rogaland Red Cross views the collaboration as an important opportunity to contribute volunteer emergency response expertise within a professional emergency response organization.

"We are proud of the trust OFFB has shown us. Our volunteers have extensive experience supporting people in challenging situations, and we are pleased to contribute to strengthening emergency response capabilities within the offshore and energy sectors," says Per Arne Lea, Managing Director of Rogaland Red Cross.

He believes the partnership will also provide valuable learning opportunities for both organizations.

"When volunteer and professional emergency response organizations work together, we build expertise that benefits society as a whole," says Lea.

This fall, OFFB and the Red Cross will conduct new training courses to educate additional volunteers and further develop the partnership.

“In 2023, we carried out 137 trainings and exercises based on 11 different Defined Situations of Hazard and Accident (DSHA). The activity level has been high, and the results are good,” says Trond Gleditsch, head of training and exercises at OFFB.

Changing demands over time

OFFB’s members are different, and their activities vary over time. This is reflected in the demand for training and exercises. In order to understand what the companies need, and to be able to deliver in the best possible way, each member has a dedicated contact person at OFFB. We use the term POC (point of contact).

“It’s a bit like having a paid-for best friend,” says chief of staff Kim Åke Sviland with a smile.

He is the new POC for Wintershall Dea Norge, as from 2024.

While getting to know Wintershall Dea’s emergency response organisation, Sviland has shadowed colleague Magnus Klem Husebye over the last months.

“Kim joined OFFB in March 2023, and was included in the early phase. This manner of working ensures a good overlap and maintains continuity. As a POC, you get to grips with the continuity of the operations, spanning from exploration to production. This broad view would have been fragmented if one person was responsible for keeping track of operations, another one for training, and a third for keeping the daily contact,” says Klem Husebye.

_{Magnus Klem Husebye, Kim Åke Sviland and Øyvind Norheim are making plans for Wintershall Dea's coming exercises.}

“Our goal is to maintain a neat and simple dialogue. The operator knows who to talk to at OFFB, and we keep track of history,” Sviland adds.

In collaboration with Wintershall Dea's emergency preparedness and security lead, Øyvind Norheim, Sviland is now scheduling the activities that OFFB will deliver this year. The "counterparty" agrees that the role of the POC and cooperation on the exercises works well.

“It is very good to have one specific person to turn to when needed. I think we cooperate well with OFFB in arranging good exercises, so that everyone involved in emergency response at Wintershall Dea is as well prepared as possible,” says Norheim.

Learning is the goal

At OFFB, we perform emergency response tasks every day. But many of the people, who are on emergency response duty for their companies, may have completely different daily work tasks. It is therefore essential to set up the exercises in such a manner that the duty teams are provided with the best possible outcome.

All training and exercise activities are considered important contributions to the continuous improvement of the emergency response functions. Depending on the activity and the number of people included in the duty team to be exercised, we will agree on how to set up the training or exercise in question. For example: Whether it should be a table top, or a level 1, level 2 or level 3 exercise. table top, nivå 1-øvelse, nivå 2-øvelse eller nivå 3-øvelse.

_{All personell in our on-duty teams are required to participate in a certain number of exercises each quarter. Information Coordinator Patricia Karlsen and Emergency Leader/Training and Exercise Leader, Trond Gleditsch, during an exercise in our emergency room at Forus.}

“At OFFB, we divide training and exercise activities into several levels, depending on how many of the member's emergency response lines are involved. A series of exercises is often carried out, using the same scenario, so that all the duty teams will have been trained, and the learning outcome for the company as a whole will be as good as possible,” Gleditsch explains.

OFFB also participates in the planning and implementation of full-scale exercises, in collaboration with other actors involved in emergency preparedness and response. These exercises rotate between the operating companies, with all other members invited to take part, as was the case with Exercise Draugen in 2023.

Monthly status meetings

The POCs have monthly status meetings with their operator’s contact person, to discuss and review the coming activities and plans.

“Together with the member company, we chart their demand in terms of training activities. They may for instance need to practice more on oil spill prevention and recovery. We then set up an exercise with a realistic scenario, which the operator of course has to approve,” says Sviland.

He enjoys his role as POC.

“You become very involved and gain a great deal of insight into the operator's activities, and it’s your job to convey this to the others on duty at OFFB. It is always exciting when companies are preparing for new drilling operations. I believe 2024 will be a year of many constructive exercises,” says Sviland.

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