Integrated drill of emergency response teams conducted at CPC Marine Terminal near Novorossiysk
An integrated drill of emergency response teams was conducted at CPC Marine Terminal near Novorossiysk on 21 July 2021. About 200 specialists and 17 units of fleet took part in the exercise, CPC says in a press release.
The drill scenario provided for the least probable but most severe accident in terms of consequences - a guillotine damage of the subsea pipeline during a tanker loading at the single point mooring (SPM). According to the exercise setting, a mooring master reported an oil leak near SPM-1. A dispatcher in the Operations Control Center in emergency mode stopped the tanker loading in simulation mode, a reconnaissance vessel was sent to the area of the incident, mobilization of the professional emergency response unit staff and gathering of the operations management headquarters (OMH) started. Based on the reconnaissance findings and taking into account the actual hydrometeorological conditions, a convoy of five oil skimmers was organized. In total 1,000 m of booms were deployed and six floating tanks were used in sea.
At the second stage, the drill participants practiced actions to contain and clean up the oil spill consequences on the coastline. The personnel of the professional emergency response unit deployed shore booms, oil skimmers, temporary storage tanks and collected oil spill in simulation mode. Three KAMAZ boom trucks, two forklifts, a crane truck and other vehicles were used.
According to the third exercise setting, the drill participants accomplished actions to extinguish a conditional oil fire on the water surface near SPM-1. A multi-purpose vessel was engaged in this type of emergency and rescue operations.
The drill was positively viewed by observers, representatives of governmental regulatory authorities and Shareholders. In the course of the exercise, the schemes for organization and management of the organic emergency response means were checked, sufficiency of the facility emergency response staff and equipment and their compliance with the regulatory level specified in the Oil Spill Prevention and Response Plan were assessed.
The CPC Pipeline System is one of CIS largest energy investment projects that involves foreign capital. The length of the Tengiz – Novorossiysk pipeline is 1,511 km. This route moves over two thirds of all Kazakhstan export oil along with crude from Russian fields including those in the Caspian region. CPC Marine Terminal is equipped with three Single Point Moorings (SPM), allowing tankers to be loaded safely at significant distance offshore, including in poor weather conditions
CPC Shareholders: Federal Agency for State Property Management represented by Transneft (trustee) – 24%, CPC Company – 7%, KazMunayGas – 19%; Kazakhstan Pipeline Ventures LLC – 1.75%, Chevron Caspian Pipeline Consortium Company – 15%, LUKARCO B.V. - 12.5%, Mobil Caspian Pipeline Company - 7.5%, Rosneft-Shell Caspian Ventures Limited - 7.5%, BG Overseas Holding Limited - 2%, Eni International N.A. N.V. - 2%, and Oryx Caspian Pipeline LLC – 1.75%.
