Last line of defence

The best response teams dotted from throughout the UAE and Bahrain are prepared for the worst, and are in a permanent state of readiness to respond to a large disaster or a small spill. Oil & Gas Middle East met the region’s leading players who provide that crucial last line of defence.

FAIRDEAL

Abdalla El-Sulaiman, manager, environmental affairs, Fairdeal spoke to Oil & Gas Middle East from his company’s Fujairah port HQ.

“We were the first private oil spill response firm to set up in the region, and our spill response capability in the UAE has continued to grow, and Fairdeal has been able to offer on the spot assistance, for the last 15 years.”

The response capability has been steadily expanded and fine-tuned over the years, based on our improved state-of-the-art anti-pollution inventory, including a dedicated fleet of anti-pollution vessels, continuous training and on-site exercises all combined to guarantee the efficiency of its spill response package.

“An immediate response and the rapid deployment of specialised, appropriate equipment are the requirements for a successful containment and clean-up. We have successfully combined these two features by introducing a Spill Response Terminal, available on a 24 hour basis for immediate response. The terminal is equipped with skimming vessels, booms, dispersants and an inventory of ancillary equipment essential when dealing with an oil pollution incident,” says El-Suleiman.

Fairdeal offers a comprehensive package of support services including boom storage, ship-to-ship standby operations, offshore oil spill recovery and shoreline protection.

In addition to these activities, the firm noticed a gap in the market back in 1985, and can also process and safely remove slops from passing vessels, and clean up captured oil from spills. “An absence of reception facilities influenced the company to establish such a service. Fairdeal developed its own technology on board existing tankers converting them into high-volume slop oil separators.”

El-Suleiman says the company’s scientific staff and technicians continue to develop and improve floating slops reception and treatment facilities. Strategically positioned at the entrance of the ROPME Sea Area, Fairdeal provides the main slops reception solution for passing vessels either inbound or outbound, offering full services on a 24 hour basis.

SEACOR

Understanding what people need in terms of their spill response preparation and activation of response systems is an area which firms have difficulty with in the Middle East, says Alex Spence, regional general manager, Seacor Environmental Services.

“For firms who have not historically been involved in dealing with oil spills, time and again we see companies that do not have a proper understanding of what their requirements are. Often the wrong equipment or the wrong type, or the wrong size in the wrong location means companies don’t actually have a real response capability to be able to protect them, and we can help with that.”

Seacor as a group works across a broad range of HSE related sectors. In addition to oil spills response the firm specialises in hazardous materials and chemicals response and fire fighting

The company has steadily grown the mitigation side of the business, and engages in a significant amount of training courses. “Over the last five years we have trained upwards of 300 people per year at all levels. All the way up to the senior executive and crisis management courses. A big part of that is not only the education of the clients but also the governments and the general public,” reveals Spence.

For a simple crisis management emergency response structure Spence recommends three main levels.

“There is the tactical response, which covers the operational people on the ground, the people physically cleaning up the oil. The level above them is the incident management team, and this is the companies or governments management team that oversees what is being done to clean up the oil. They are in an office co-ordinating the support and resources. The level above that is the crisis management team that works across looking at the strategy for the company or the government in dealing with these issues,” The management team can find themselves dealing with media liaison and sometimes reputation management.

“One big thing we are able to do is bring a number of years of experience working under different strategies across globe. Having the ability to deliver people at the tactical, incident management and the crisis management teams is something that no other company in the region can claim.”

Seacor is going through an exciting phase with its oil spill response work, and is targeting the National Oil Companies as strategic partners. “We recently signed a very major contract with ADNOC for the provision of Tier 2 and Tier 3 oil spill response – Essentially the very major incidents,” he reveals.

As part of the agreement Seacor will provide ADNOC with the ability to skill their staff by using them in other Seacor offices around the world, so they get the experience and skills from other places.

“We have been working with a number of the other national oil companies in this region and outside it, in trying to implement something similar. Instead of it being a traditional model where they are simply paying a retainer and waiting for something to go wrong, we are working with them on a daily basis to help improve their response capability to help work with their people and help develop their systems and standards,” adds Spence.

Spence offers some sound advice for any environmental or marine officers. “The most important thing people should do is ask for advice about the equipment before they buy it, from someone who is not a supplier or manufacturer. Countless times we see the wrong equipment in the wrong place, and although there is equipment there, it really won’t protect whoever is trying to use it.”

Oil Spill Response Limited

There are a variety of different models which fund the oil spill response sector. Obviously being reliant on major incidents has its pitfalls in a good compliance year.

Oil Spill Response is the only not for profit organisation working in its field, and has a major response centre in Bahrain. “We aren’t reliant on the volume of work that we respond to in order to fund our preparedness. Our principals fund our equipment purchases, maintenance and staff costs,” explains Rob Self, regional manager OSRL Bahrain.

The company is funded through full membership by many of the world’s majors and National Oil Companies, including Saudi Aramco and Kuwait Petroleum Company from this region.

Despite a tough line on cost control from all super majors since 2008, Self says the company’s membership hasn’t changed significantly. “Membership does change with industry activity to a certain extent, for example when someone is drilling they may take up membership for the duration of the project, but since the Bahrain office opened in 2006 our membership has grown from 23 shareholders to over 110 members.”

Offshore oil spills attract much more public attention, but onshore operations still pose cleanup challenges.

“In this region pipeline spills and onshore work is fairly easy to clean up through sponging the area as quickly as possible, or removing contaminated grounds. We did a job in Yemen where oil had got into a deep wadi. There was particular urgency with that job because if rain came and rushed down the wadi the environmental damage would have been over a much wider area. We had to incinerate the waste in situ because it was extremely steep to get down there, so getting equipment down there just wasn’t possible.” In order to properly respond to major spill disasters in a timely fashion, OSRL constantly keeps its emergency response kits in sealed customs-cleared containers ready for chartered deployment. “Our air portable response kits are pre-customs cleared in Bahrain – this is essential because it’s very difficult to move things cross-boundary, especially through Saudi Arabia by land, and too slow by sea.”

Fender Spill Response Services

Based in Fujairah, but with stations dotted around the UAE’s Gulf coat, as well as a new operations centre in Djibouti, FSRS general manager Kenneth Campbell says the company is ready to pounce the instant the phone rings.

“In case there is an incident we are activated from our Fujairah HQ. We have rapid response in Fujairah, Dubai, and Djibouti. We do a lot of work with marine engineering firms, providing oil spill response kits and spill familiarisation courses to equip companies with the ability to respond to their worst case scenarios – so mitigation is an important part of our business too,” he says.

In the worst case scenario Campbell says that the local firms will pool resources to tackle a spill.

“If a tanker went down in the region everybody would pull together. The main companies based down here in Fujairah all work on a principal of mutual aid. If there is an incident for any one of us the others are immediately put on alert, and if needs be we pull together and assist. In an emergency competition goes out the window and we work collaboratively.”

In recent years the boom in regional tourism, almost all coastal, has seen the business deal with emergency responses and urgent beach clean up operations after tanker owners pump out oily water, ballast and flush their bilge tanks on the approach to the Strait of Hormuz.

“We do a lot of work with hotels in the Fujairah and Mussandam areas of Oman. Their beach fronts can be really hammered by irresponsible tanker owners discharging ballast tanks and bilge tanks before they enter the Gulf. By the time that oily water has reached the beach it’s too late for a spill response. Then it’s a case of skimming the sand and conducting a thorough beach clean up,” he explains.

Although the firm is certified to use chemical dispersants, Campbell stresses this is often a last resort. “Dispersants can cause more problems because of the fragile ecosystems around here, such as mangrove swamps. The best response is offshore and involves containment and recovery, areas we obviously specialise in.”

A rapid offshore response would typically involve the call out of vessels equipped with booms to contain a spill, and the deployment of skimmers to clear the oil from the sea.

There are several varieties by a handful of best-in-class manufacturers which all recover oil by, as the name suggests, skimming from the surface. “The best ones, and the ones we use have an efficiency of around 98%, so only 2% of what you skim and collect will be water,” says Campbell.

Abu Dhabi has been the driving force behind the adoption of European or international best practice standards. “The rest of the country is picking up too, but Abu Dhabi, for obvious reasons is driving the change,” reveals Campbell. The risk of spill from a catastrophe at sea is relatively low with the modern fleet of tankers in operation, thanks to IMO double-hull rules. However, much of what firms in the Middle East respond to are accidental spills, or those through human negligence.

However, scrimping on on-board preparedness is a false economy. “There are recent examples of relatively minor accidents attracting fines of up to $10,000 for fuel oil or diesel spills. Owners and operators, even small independents in recent years have become much, much better in their level of preparation, mitigation and general response. Hefty fines have probably helped that situation.”

The new ADCO pipeline which will transport oil directly from Abu Dhabi to the Fujairah export terminals will bring a new influx of spill response to the coastline says Campbell. “There are three big terminals going in to handle the oil from Abu Dhabi. There will be a dedicated Tier Two response centre set up before that is operational. It will be a comfort to know that additional resource is there for everyone along this coast line.”