Offshore staff
HOUSTON –BP plans to offer advanced training programs for its offshore drilling teams under a new global agreement with Maersk Training. Patterned after an existing program in Europe, the new facility in Houston will feature interactive simulators that replicate most critical job on an offshore drilling rig.
The new Maersk Training facility will be in north Houston and will be patterned after the company’s offshore simulation complex in Denmark, which opened in 2012. The Houston facility will include simulators for cyber drilling, vessel bridge, cranes and engine room, plus an emergency response room. In addition, Maersk Training will equip the facility for ship-handling operations to serve the maritime training market.
BP will use the facility to train integrated offshore drilling teams – comprised of BP employees and contractors – in what it calls an “immersive simulation environment.” BP said the hands-on, scenario-based approach goes beyond traditional classroom training and allows teams to practice events and joint procedures together as an integrated unit, rather than as individual contributors.
Like existing BP training programs at a Maersk Training facility at Svendborg, Denmark, courses at the Houston facility will incorporate human and organizational factors that frequently are cited as a direct cause or contributing factor tooffshore incidents. Course instructors also will be able to assess personnel under intense virtual reality – and to levels that exceed industry standards.
02/20/2015
