Kashagan team stage oil spill response exercise

Oct. 8, 2018
North Caspian Operating Co., the North Caspian project operator responsible for the shallow-water Kashagan field development, has conducted the ‘Altyn Kyran’ Tier 3 oil spill desktop exercise with Shell, ExxonMobil, and various Kazakh state authorities.

Offshore staff

ATYRAU, KazakhstanNorth Caspian Operating Co. (NCOC), the North Caspian project operator responsible for the shallow-water Kashagan field development, has conducted the ‘Altyn Kyran’ Tier 3 oil spill desktop exercise with Shell, ExxonMobil, and various Kazakh state authorities.

The program took place over three days and was designed to simulate realistic conditions. It brought together 180 personnel from SMEs, numerous departments of NCOC, and representatives from Shell and ExxonMobil.

It was designed to test the efficiency of the workforce and interaction of resources to respond to the most challenging Tier 3 oil spill, and involved mobilization of the Southampton, UK-based International Oil Spill Response Contracting Organization.

According to the scenario, all the consortium services engaged were tasked with formulating joint oil spill response actions, sharing skills on planning rescue operations, oil spill containment and clean-up activities in the North Caspian shallow water and protecting the coastline with deployment of shallow-water task vessels and equipment.

As part of the program to simulate containment of an oil spill, actions were devised for deployment of oil skimmers and booms, tanks to recover oil-water emulsion, emergency evacuation vessels, and support boats.

The overall aim was to ensure compliance of the emergency response interaction plans with relevant Kazakh laws on emergency response, civil protection and the national oil spill response plan.

10/08/2018