ABSTRACT
In 2022 all operators on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) and members of the Norwegian Clean Seas Association for Operating Companies (NOFO) acknowledged that in case of a long-term oil spill incident on the NCS, it may be necessary to seek assistance from each other to supplement the respective incident management team (IMT) capabilities. Based on best practice worldwide, the operators decided (i) to commit to the Incident Command System (ICS) as a common method and planning process to ensure efficient collaboration in case of an incident, (ii) that the operators’ respective incident management teams must standardize responsibilities, tasks and distribution of roles between the companies themselves and between the companies and NOFO, (iii) that the operators must be coordinated through joint courses, training and exercises, and (iv) that a mutual agreement must be signed to facilitate efficient collaboration.
In 2023 all operators committed to the agreement on mutual cooperation and assistance related to emergency response. This agreement was developed to ensure the necessary cooperation to facilitate such assistance, but does not shift any responsibility for the management of any incidents.
The primary purpose of the agreement is to facilitate cooperation between the parties, ensuring mutual support to their respective emergency response capabilities in case of a long-term oil spill incident, typically 60 days +. The agreement determines the terms and conditions under which a party may request personnel to its IMT from the other parties in response to an ongoing incident. To facilitate the mutual support to the IMT the parties commit to jointly provide the minimum number of trained personnel required.
The parties will help strengthen responder competency through common courses, training and exercises. The parties are expected to cooperate towards the planning and execution of these events. Joint training will ensure better collaboration when responding to an incident and strengthen the use of a common standard for the response. This paper will describe the process of establishing this agreement, how Norwegian authorities deal with it, and how the industry plans to build a national resource pool of response personnel to assist an operator's IMT in a long-term oil spill response.