THE ADNOC 1999 OIL SPILL EXERCISE“EXERCISE GHAZAL – PAJ Stockpile: The Maintenance Contractors
Perspective”
by GLYN HIGGINSON
Marketing Manager (onshore division) – Lamnalco Limited
Maintenance Contractors for the Abu Dhabi based PAJ Response Stockpile

As maintenance contractors for the P.A.J. for the U.A.E. based stockpile our involvementwith Exercise Ghazal began at an early stage through the planning meetings that took
place throughout the year prior to the exercise.

Ed has already discussed the ‘Ghazal’ and the organisations involved and more
importantly the aims targeted by ADNOC from which to measure the success of the dayand lessons learnt for future response.

For Lamnalco, from the perspective of maintenance contractors and previous respondents
to the ‘Pontoon 300 spill’, ‘Exercise Ghazal’ presented us with an opportunity to achieve
the following aims:

I.

Promotion of awareness of the P.A.J. and the Stockpile in Abu Dhabi.

II.

Increase awareness of the borrowing procedure and intentions of the stockpile.

III.

Testing the logistics for mobilisation of the stockpile.

IV.

Integration of personnel amongst the many organisations present.

V.

To assess the oil spill response structure present in the U.A.E. today.

I & II. – Awareness
Aims I & II are long term targets that we continue to pursue in order for the stockpiles tobe fully utilised. Maximum awareness must be raised within the organisations who will
be involved in responding to future spills – for this, Exercise Ghazal was a perfectwindow of opportunity.

Many companies in the U.A.E have previously been unaware of the nature of P.A.J’s
contribution to the response capability available in the area. Indeed during the recentspill ‘Al Jaziya 1’ – a small tanker designed for European inlets carrying 800 tons of fueloil, one individual from the responding organisation thought that they may have to pay
for the use of the stockpile! This mistake was quickly corrected by another member of
their organisation, meaning that the awareness of the stockpile is spreading and willcontinue to do so.

Through the public deployment of equipment during ‘Ghazal’ and ‘Al Jaziya 1’individuals have become far more aware of The P.A.J. and the assistance that thestockpile provides in cases of emergency. Press coverage has provided an even broader
medium from which to inform the populace as a whole.

Overall in the last 24 months the stockpile presence has been acknowledged and utilisedby far more organisations than ever before – this is primarily due to exercises such as‘Ghazal’ and the subsequent spill, ‘Al Jaziya 1’ keeping the stockpile in the minds ofthose who most respond to an emergency should it occur.

III. – Mobilisation Logistics
As we are all aware mobilisation times are critical when a spill occurs – oil dispersant
only has a relatively small window of effectiveness in which to work; the earlier thatbooms are deployed the greater the possible protection to key areas ie. especially desalination plants in the Middle East.

Therefore every opportunity in which to test the logistics of mobilisation and deploymentof the stockpile is eagerly anticipated. As maintenance contractors we do occasionally
get asked by the responding organisations to mobilise the stockpile on their behalf. As
such it is important to ensure that a reliable logistical infrastructure is in place in order toreact at anytime, this means setting in place agreements with local transport companies
for twenty four hour cover and also to ensure that in the case of the Abu Dhabi OilCompany (ADOC), who store the equipment, that we can liaise with them to access thethe stockpile in the shortest time possible.

Although in the case of ‘Exercise Ghazal’ we were unable to test the true reliability of
this, as the stockpile was onsite the day before. The awareness that the logistical network
has to work and that these systems must be in place for such an eventuality is a success initself.

As a result of the exercise, communications and links between ourselves, ADOC and ourlogistical support companies have been improved. We are now able to mobilise trailers
to the equipment in Abu Dhabi within an hour and craneage is available at the majority ofports within the U.A.E. in approximately two hours resulting in a brief mobilisation time.

Ultimately by improving these timings we can create a bigger window for response. Thismeans that Booms can be deployed more quickly and inlets protected; further leakages
contained; recovery of oil at an earlier stage offshore in order to prevent greater shorelinedamage.

Although these all require other links in the logistical chain to work efficiently by
improving the response of our own part we can provide greater flexibility to any responsein the U.A.E. and thus increase the effectiveness of the stockpile.

VI. – Personnel Integration and Team work
Apart from the elements themselves, humans are probably the greatest variable that takepart in any response. Variables in the sense that each individual will react differently toeach situation they are presented with, this is greatly magnified in the case of a country
similar to the U.A.E. where nationalities, cultures and languages are all mixed together
throughout every organisation and thus any oil spill response operation.

During Exercise Ghazal nationalities working alongside each other in the deployment ofequipment included, Japanese, British, Indian, Pakistani, Filipino and GCC nationals.

Therefore one of the problems that would face any response in the UAE was also present
during ‘Exercise Ghazal’ as team members from OSRL, PAJ, Lamnalco and ADNOC
had to mesh together to give a successful real time deployment and offshore response.

Overall we did find there were a few hiccups and although it did take a while foreverybody to get used to the differences in language, tasks were successfully assigned
and carried out. Due consideration was given during the exercise to the difference inEnglish conversational levels between the operators. Whereas at the beginning of theexercise operators from each organisation stuck together, as the day went on these groups
disbanded so that each task carried out had a complete mix of personnel. Ultimately thedeployment of the equipment came first and difference in language second – to thebenefit of the response.

As a member of OSRL commented they had never worked with PAJ operators previously
and were so impressed that they wondered whether PAJ had any spare overalls that they
could take back to Southampton with them as momentos!

Overall from the perspective of the maintenance contractors and as participants we feltthat “Ghazal” has helped us tremendously in reaching those targets previously discussed.
This is particuarly apparent when we refer to the oil spill caused by the sinking of thevessel ‘Al Jaziya 1’ on the 24th of January this year.

I believe that as a result of Exercise Ghazal the response operation to the ‘Al Jaziya 1’
spill was able to draw on those lessons learnt the previous October. PAJ Hi-sprint booms
were successfully deployed, integration and co-operation between Lamnalco andADNOC personnel was highly productive with many of the same respondents working
during the actual spill as during the exercise.

Although the “Al Jaziya1” was a minor incident compared with the “Pontoon 300” spillof January 1998, it had occurred offshore of Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the U.A.E.,
which has several critical areas including sea water intakes for power stations, an oil
refinery and tourist beaches all in a short stretch of coast line.

The real test for what had been learnt during Ghazal had arrived, and more importantly asa result of this the response had been put in place in order to deal with such a spill.

Overall the response was seen as successful, even though bad weather continuallyhindered the operation, the salvors were able to recover the residual cargo on board andtow the vessel back to port. The oil that had beached was attacked as soon as it hit theshoreline by municipal workers, and use of dispersant and deployment of equipment wascarried out with little hiccup.

In the future this kind of response can only occur through continued training and exercise
and awareness. Hopefully ‘Exercise Ghazal’ has begun the snowball effect that wewould all like to see throughout the U.A.E. with regard to oil spill response. In addition
with the imminent arrival of the national contingency plan and its response bases aroundthe Emirates, we may hopefully work towards and see a response similar to thatoccurring in Abu Dhabi in those poorer Emirates in the North of the country.