Cleaning Arctic oil spills in the dark?

Eni Norge, a Norwegian subsidiary of the Italian oil giant Eni, is working on what they say is the world’s first center providing training for oil spill response in conditions of darkness.

To make it work, Eni Norge has entered into an oil spill contingency training agreement with the Nordkapp Maritime Training Centre in Honningsvåg, Norway.

“The centre will be the first in the world to employ simulators for oil recovery training in conditions of darkness,” Eni said in a statement.

The company has said that the monitoring and recovery of oil in conditions of darkness are issues that Eni Norge has been working to address for many years.

“The Nordkapp Maritime Training Centre has state-of-the-art simulators enabling the simulation of both the discharge and recovery of oil under demanding conditions, including in darkness,” Eni added.

“This is of special significance in the Arctic where there is very little daylight during the winter.”

The company explains that this is of special significance in the Arctic, where Eni is working on its Goliat field development, where there is very little daylight during the winter.

The centre will also train both onshore and offshore personnel in how to obtain a joint situational understanding during a potential incident.

The contract with the Nordkapp Maritime Training Centre has comprises of:

1. Courses and training in oil spill contingency response.

2. Courses in towing to the crews of the standby vessel Esvagt Aurora and other vessels used by Eni Norge in connection with the Goliat project. This will involve training the crews in how to remove vessels which may be drifting on a collision course with the Goliat platform.

3. Courses in team coordination and training for personnel manning the Goliat platform, standby vessels and shuttle tankers to enable them to carry out loading and offloading operations to and from the platform as safely as possible.

The contract extends from 1 November 2014 for a period of three years, and contains a 2 + 2-year extension option.