Case Study: Kuwait Oil Company develops response capability
Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) is the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation’s (KPC) subsidiary responsible for oil exploration and export operations in Kuwait.
The export operations oversee the lifting of crude oil from KOC’s inland fields and refined products from the three refineries within the Port of Kuwait.
In 2015, as a preparedness measure, KOC formed an oil spill management team (MOSMT) to manage responses to marine oil spills from its marine and export operations. The MOSMT requested OSRL’s support to develop the existing oil spill response capability by providing a range of preparedness deliverables.
Background
The MOSMT was dedicated to ensure KOC’s oil spill response capability reached levels of the oil industry’s latest good practice. OSRL worked with the MOSMT to first assess the gaps in the different areas of their preparedness and response capability. This required a capability review of equipment and vessels, as well as interactive sessions to understand the existing arrangements in place.
As part of the capability review, OSRL provided a series of preparedness recommendations to increase the capability of the oil spill management team. OSRL ensured the use of industry good practice guides such as the tiered preparedness & response and response strategy development using NEBA were used for the relevant deliverables.
Over a period of five months, OSRL provided the MOSMT with the following deliverables:
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Equipment and vessel review and recommendation
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Risk assessment
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Shoreline classification and sensitivity maps
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Concept of operations for response
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Waste management guidance document
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Oil Spill Response Plan (OSRP) and roll-out workshop
These products will be the foundation for further development of the MOSMT’s existing response capability.
Results & Conclusion
The MOSMT worked closely with the project team from OSRL which gave them a good insight into oil spill response. The range of different deliverables also provided the MOSMT team with the confidence required to build their knowledge and resources. The project allowed KOC to gain invaluable knowledge surrounding the capability of not only the MOSMT, but of OSRL and how preparedness is fundamental to being able to implement an effective response at any time.
This was a unique project that has put the MOSMT in a better position to prepare for and respond to spills from KOC’s export and marine operations.
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