THE ADNOC 1999 OIL SPILL EXERCISE: EXERCISE GHAZAL

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) conducted the largest full deployment oil spill exercise ever held in the Arabian Gulf on October 4, 1999. Code-named EXERCISE GHAZAL, it took the form of an incident management exercise, lasting one long day of approximately 10–14 hours. This exercise required significant planning In terms of availability of personnel, development of an appropriate scenario and arranging for the physical and logistic requirements of such an exercise. Industry participants included the ADNOC Crisis Management Team, the Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company's Emergency Response Team, BP Amoco as the vessel and cargo owner, government/industry liaison, and press/media. ADNOC activated regional and international oil spill response equipment and personnel, including the equipment stockpile of the Petroleum Association of Japan and Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL) in the United Kingdom. Local aviation assets activated for simulated aerial spraying of dispersant were augmented by deployment of the OSRL Hercules aircraft and ADDS pack dispersant spray system from Southampton, United Kingdom. Another major accomplishment of EXERCISE GHAZAL was the full participation and integration for the first time of local and national government agencies into a major Incident response. Included in the planning and execution of EXERCISE GHAZAL were the Federal Environmental Agency, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Frontier and Coast Guard, Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency, Civil Defense, the Ministries of Health and Communication, the General Civil Aviation Authority, and others. The exercise received extensive local, regional, and international media coverage. Following the completion of EXERCISE GHAZAL, an immediate “hotwash” debriefing of all participants was conducted, followed by a more formal, comprehensive debriefing of the major participants. These sessions generated key lessons learned and led to the development of a Five-Point Action Plan to improve the ability of the United Arab Emirates to respond to a major oil spill, the primary point being the development of a National Oil Spill Contingency Plan.