GI WACAF organised a fully online joint industry-government national IMS 300 training and exercise with Namibia – 20 -23 July 2021

July 22nd 2021

After a first online workshop in June, this joint industry-government activity is the first online training and exercise to be organised by the GI WACAF Project, proving the Project’s and partner countries’ efforts to adapt to the international travel restrictions linked to the global pandemic.

In preparation for the upcoming exploration campaigns off the coast of Namibia, a joint industry/government activity was set up to foster coordination between all stakeholders in case of an emergency. The activity organised by GI WACAF was hosted by the Ministry of Works and Transport of Namibia. While the 3-day IMS 300 training was delivered by OSRL, Shell and TotalEnergies facilitated the exercise on the last day.

Due to travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic the training programme has been adapted to consider the specificities of a remote activity: special efforts have been made to provide participants with the most constructive and beneficial training experience possible, including presentations by experts and trainers as well as exercises.

The main objectives of this joint industry-government training and exercise were to:

  • Train the participants who might be involved with incident management to be fully conversant with the process of developing action plans for a complex incident;
  • Test the communication links between all stakeholders;
  • Test companies’ contingency plans in accordance with Namibia’s NOSCP in case of an oil spill incident; and
  • Expose participants to the key issues related to spill incidents.

The experience proved to be very interactive, with experts answering many questions and offering dedicated timeslots to work on small exercises in smaller groups. The final report will be soon available on the dedicated activity webpage.