How Industry Collaboration Can Manage an Effective Source Control Emergency Response

Responding to a Source Control event requires a significant amount of resources, both in terms of engineering complexity and skilled personnel. The pool of available hardware is ever increasing, not only in quantity but in operational complexity. Service providers store and maintain a range of equipment, including capping stacks, subsea dispersant application tooling, technology to allow landing of capping stacks in shallow water and flowback systems. To mount a response, it is highly likely that these assets would be mobilised from various global locations. It would also require the support from many organisations with expertise in various fields. Industry has invested significantly in workshops and exercises to test and continuously improve the service provisions in place. This paper aims to: Re-visit industry led source control exercises completed to date and identify the impact they have had on preparednessDiscuss key developments industry is taking to tackle complex planning activity, including regional expertise forumsWork through the core subjects that require industry collaboration to develop a successful Source Control Emergency Response Plan (SCERP - detailed below) Industry led exercises & workshops have identified several key items that require detailed analysis to develop a successful SCERP: Response Time Modelling – understanding and planning complex supply chain requirementsResource mapping – identifying global experts who can provide engineering, modelling and operational supportMutual aid – in the event of a mobilisation, how can industry work together to ensure the most experienced people can work collaborativelyEquipment fabrication – whilst there is a range of hardware available, certain scenarios will require the fabrication of specific equipment. How can this be managed and pre-planned?Exercising and testing – how can the above subjects be effectively tested, with industry maximising experience and ensuring continuous development of lessons learned This paper will explore the steps industry has taken to methodically work through these challenges to ensure that preparedness remains a high priority. The range of industry developed guidelines that have also been developed to act as a handrail for planning purposes will be discussed. Whilst planning and executing Source Control exercises can take a significant amount of time and investment, the lessons learned, and experience gained is invaluable not only directly to industry, but wider support organisations (i.e. logistics providers). It is paramount that these lessons are built on and the experience gained is maintained for the future.