Over three years have now passed since the Subsea Well Intervention Services (SWIS) response base was officially opened in Norway by the Norwegian Minister of Oil & Energy.
This was the first base to be set up for the joint industry project and I was also new to OSRL, so straight away it was challenging! One of my top priorities was to get to know the right people at the right places within OSRL. Luckily everyone here in Norway had tremendous help from the OSRL project team that had pre-identified the base location not to forget everyone at our other bases and offices who welcomed their new rather demanding Norwegian colleagues with an indulgent smile and always helping hand, guiding us down the correct path.
It has been a journey and although I have only been with OSRL for three years it feels like much longer. Coming to OSRL has been a steep learning curve for both myself and my team in Norway. Since the inauguration of the OSRL Norway SWIS base, we have gone on to open three more SWIS bases in Singapore, South Africa and Brazil, as well as introducing the SWIS Containment Toolkit which complements the four Capping Stacks that we have and is now available to the industry from strategic locations around the world. Not to forget the Global Dispersant stockpile of 5000 cbm of dispersants procured, produced and stored within the same timeframe.
Now we are looking forward to getting ready the last piece of the puzzle, the Offset Installation Equipment to be utilised if vertical access to an uncontrolled well incident is not possible.
The Norway team is now settling into operational mode, maintaining the Capping Stack and the Subsea Incident Response Toolkit that we have stored here. Our location is also great for meeting with some of our local members - we always welcome visitors!
In the unlikely event of an unwanted subsea incident should ever occur, we will be ready.
