Collaboration on emergency preparedness

by Trude Meland, Norwegian Petroleum Museum

Phillips and BP joined forces in 2001 to improve their use of emergency response resources at the southern end of Norway’s North Sea sector.

— The southern end, and other areas that have collaboration on emergency preparedness. Illustration: Petroleum Safety Authority Norway

This agreement covered joint preparedness analyses and requirements as well as documentation, and collaboration over response drills. An improved overview of emergency response resources in the area and agreement on the division of costs also formed part of the collaboration.

Emergency preparedness for this part of the North Sea covered cooperation in critical circumstances, such as a person falling overboard when working above the open sea.

Other examples included people in the sea after a helicopter crash or emergency evacuation, a collision threat, acute oil spills, fires and personal injuries requiring external assistance.

This collaboration made it possible to reduce the number of standby vessels on Ekofisk from three to two.[REMOVE]Fotnote: EkofiskNytt, no 4, “Beredskapssamarbeid på sørfeltet”, week 17, 2001.