Learning Platform - Emergency Response Course

'Timeout!'

For two days the LNG simulator suite in the basement of Maersk Training's Svendborg hotel had been turned on its head. The classroom had become the instructor's control room and the LNG control room converted into the hub of an offshore platform. With the introduction of a two-way mirror and a wall of indication lights, the scene had been set for a very concentrated series of emergencies.

For the first time a production platform CCR team, eight guys drawn from Tyra East in the North Sea, were being subjected to intense situations they had never encountered in the past and could only hope that they will never do so in the future. Should they do so then these two days might prove to be the most valuable usage of free time they'd ever had.

In a temporary suspension of reality the atmosphere was one of palpable tension as they fought to deal with scenarios which Maersk Training instructors Ole Månsson and Morten Kaiser controlled from behind the double mirror. For the two instructors it was a significant milestone in a hectic schedule which only weeks ago saw them onboard the Tyra East platform, notebooks in hand, all pages blank. For Carsten Joest Nielsen and Training Coordinator Joan Qvist Jacobsen from Maersk Oil it was an important junction on a road journey they'd set out on some years earlier in search for a specific platform culture and importantly how to train for it. What was unfolding in front of them was the realization of Carsten's contribution to Process Safety.

'On day one we found that we didn't see the situation in the same way, but by using the Timeouts we gained that. In feedback one of the guys said that in the past he always assumed that the platform supervisor knew what was going on so he wouldn't have said anything - but now by communicating in the timeouts he had the chance to create a better, fuller picture,' said Carsten.

Much of the physical picture was created in MT building inspector Claus Jensen's workshop. Claus's contribution was quiet but huge – hundreds of LED's, many meters of wire and dozens of switch boxes and buttons, meticulously joined together in a format which to the uneducated eye was impressively complicated, but to the oil man stirringly informative. It wasn't sophisticated, but for this pilot Emergency Response Training course it more than sufficed. Added to the backboard were some of the most simple of tools, a white markerboard or two.

These of course were not revolutionary, but what was most pleasing Carsten was the way they were being used. The Timeouts were in search of clarity and clarity is only achieved with focus. The logging of the incident, minute by minute, allowed platform supervisor Flemming Marxen gain a clear view of what everyone was doing and the team members in return had the assurance that they knew exactly what the situation was.

'Considering the set-up, operating on a pilot budget, a lot has been achieved,' said Flemming adding that 'there was a noticeable adrenalin flow once the exercises started – it doesn't matter if you are on a platform or in the basement at MT as long as the people who contribute provide realistic situations.'

Carsten had suggested the training method in order to get crews away from platforms and into an environment where they could properly assess progress and practices. Emergency Response training in the past has been targeted at the top decision makers but what the course proved was that without the full picture, the 360° view, any decisions could be dangerously based.

'We have found a new way of working as a team. I've tried to use this in the past out on the platforms but we needed this particular environment to implement it – to practice and to see why it is important. Somewhere without production demands where we could rewind and revise,' he said.

The mixture of technical and people skills came as a particular bonus to Flemming. He'd spent the last decade on platforms in Qatar where on a typical there would be 35 different nationalities out of a crew of a hundred. 'It's a problem because some cultures respond with a yes because they think that is what you want to hear – working with a Danish crew is very different, they challenge a lot more, but the bonus is you also get more feedback,' said Flemming.

'Seeing the ship simulators down here it would be nice if we could build something similar for platforms –what is needed is for somebody to post in some money to make it more permanent. But we are off to a very good start,' he concluded.