Health & Safety


Cost and risk – considerations Companies that work in oil and gas are often asked about cost and risk considerations in relation to security planning. Te response to this is quite simple: money is no issue where lives are concerned and when it comes to risk, there are no guarantees. During times of unrest, when those in control of transport have the power to make or break your evacuation plan, parting with large sums of cash could be your only option. If the going rate for the last flight out is $100 000, you’ll pay it to escape to a place of safety. With or without these payments, the cost of securing transportation at short notice is likely to be high, especially for large volumes of personnel.


Mitigating risks Guarantees are not possible with security planning, but it’s important to mitigate risk through accurate intelligence and threat assessment to understand each situation as it unfolds. Links with the authorities can help with securing an escort for evacuation. However, security teams must be given the opportunity to forge these all important relationships before the emergency develops. Naturally, this can often come under the gaze of the accountants who might only see the shorter term costs rather than the longer term benefits of such an approach. While loss of lives is obviously the greatest risk


during the evacuation process, companies must also consider the risk of their reputation: if your evacuation planning is incomplete, you could compromise the security of your people and your reputation will, inevitably, suffer. To position your company as inadequately


prepared for an emergency situation is to give your competitors greater appeal and miss out on the


Oil spill detection system T


he Miros OSD System has become a success story and has quickly been adopted by international oil


recovery operators as a reliable, well verified and efficient tool when oil spill response operations are carried out. The system has been tested yearly in oil-on-water trials since 2004, giving the crew of oil spill recovery vessels automated oil spill detection, oil spill position history and estimate of future drift. During the past year the number of installations


in Europe, South America, China and USA has been increased, and as of now the Miros OSD has gained interest in most parts of the world. The Miros OSD System utilises a standard marine


X-band radar and advanced image processing algorithms for the detection of oil spill. The system can automatically detect and track oil spills in complete


Te Miros OSD System showing an oil spill together with oil drift and wind speed vectors.


market shapers of the global talent pool.


Recommendations As a global talent agency within the oil and gas industry and operating in high-risk locations such as Africa and the Middle East, NES Global supports its contractors with a high-quality risk management plan. Trough a partnership with a world-leading business risk consultancy that provides an evacuation monitor in the relevant territories, we can take the most appropriate course of action at the time of incident. Features of this plan include: a risk management team that identifies threat levels and evacuation advice levels; a 24-hour security support helpline for NES employees, contractors and their families (real-time updates help to take the right action at the right time); a process that identifies who, and where the contractors are, and what they are doing; and transportation co-ordination for evacuation. As well as establishing their


“The logistics of executing an evacuation pose significant challenges – will you get your people out by road or by air? What will you do if it’s not possible to use your preferred method?”


Nick Stocker, Associate Director, NES Global


own comprehensive security strategies, companies operating in high-risk locations within the oil and gas industry should ensure that they work with third party suppliers who are also suitably prepared to


darkness, enabling 24-hours recovery and surveillance operations. Oil spill response times are shortened, the


efficiency of clean-up operations is increased, and the extent of environmental impact is reduced. Behind the technology used in the system lies the


fact that oil dampens the wind generated sea surface capillary waves. Because of this, the backscattered electromagnetic energy from sea surface areas covered with oil is significantly reduced. Advanced image processing of the radar signal in


a multistep process enables the OSD system to filter out various types of noise and to homogenise the radar images in order to clearly distinguish between oil and water. ●


Enter 75 or ✔ at www.engineerlive.com/iog


Miros AS is based in Asker, Norway. www.miros.no


www.engineerlive.com 75


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