Preparing for Emergency Response in Guyana

In mid-May, the ExxonMobil Guyana affiliate and SBM Offshore teams took part in a two-day emergency response training class. The training provided the combined team of approximately 25 people their first opportunity to work through an incident response together.

The training was based on the Incident Command System (ICS), which is a standardized approach to the command, control and coordination of emergency response. Many incidents—from widespread natural disasters to home fires—require action from a number of different agencies. These responders may be governmental or private-sector agencies. Regardless of the size of the incident or the number of agencies involved in the response, all incidents require a coordinated effort to ensure an effective response and the efficient, safe use of resources. ICS has been implemented for more than 30 years for a range of emergency and non-emergency applications around the world.

The first day and a half of the training covered topics such as building an emergency response organization, roles and responsibilities, initial response activities, and overviews of the reactive and proactive phases of a response. On the remaining half day attendees took part in a drill simulating a leak in the subsea equipment offshore Guyana, followed by a discussion on the class’s performance.

Additional trainings are planned in the third quarter that will include different emergency response scenarios to practice.