On-Scene Commander's Course

The oil industry is expanding rapidly in Angola and companies involved in production and exploration are taking measures to ensure that risk posed by their operations are minimised. Training of staff involved in the preparation of contingency plans and managing the response to oil spill incidents is an essential ingredient to mitigate the risks and to protect the environment. The Oil Spill Training Company, in co-operation with Seacor Environmental Services and HiBar UK presented an IMO Level 2, Oil Spill On-Scene Commanders Course in Luanda. The course was hosted and partly funded by BP Angola with the venue kindly provided by SONILS. Attendees from BP, SONILS, SONANGOL, Chevron, Devon Energy and the Ministry of Petroleum participated in the five day event.

Participants conducting site assessments

The course took an unusual twist on the day that a practical equipment demonstration was planned. An incident occurred at a local waste oil processing facility that resulted in the release of a quantity of oil, polluting the area where the equipment deployment was planned. The course members were given the unique opportunity to conduct Shoreline and Site Safety Assessments in a real spill situation. Although the spillage was relatively small, it still gave the participants an insight into some of the difficulties that can be encountered during a response.

The course focused on providing a broad knowledge of the responsibilities of an emergency response team, developing and implementing a response organisation, co-ordinating the work of other agencies involved and deciding on the response strategies and tactics to be utilised during a clean-up operation. The programme included a range of desktop and practical exercises designed to re-enforce the information discussed during classroom sessions. Responder® Companion CDs were distributed that included a wide range of publications and the full range of Responder® Toolkits, the interactive electronic programmes available exclusively from the Oil Spill Training Company.