Six national oil and gas trade associations are strengthening their emergency response arrangements for offshore northwest Europe.
OCES (Operators’ Cooperative Emergency Services) is a joint declaration among the associations of the UK, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, and the Irish Republic. It allows operating companies to call on each other for support in emergency situations, regardless of national boundaries.
Assistance can take the form of specialist services, equipment, or vessels. An emergency would be considered one category below a Mayday distress situation, which all vessel captains and offshore installation managers already have an international duty to respond to.
OCES has operated since 1979 and has been reviewed periodically since. But following the Macondo incident in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, Oil & Gas UK’s Oil Spill Prevention and Response Advisory Group (OSPRAG) recommended a new review of the arrangement.
Paul Dymond, Oil & Gas UK operations director, said: “OCES is …now clearer and – while it is not a legally binding agreement – it sets out the principles under which co-operative emergency services to offshore oil and gas operations may be provided quickly and efficiently.
"OCES has never had to be used in the 30 years or so of its existence, but is tested through regular exercises, the last of which was run in May 2011.
“These exercises will continue and Oil & Gas UK and our five international partners are committed to upholding and promoting the OCES arrangement to our member companies.”
