Skagerak Chemical Oilspill Pollution Exercise (SCOPE) 2017, a joint project of Nordic countries, co-funded by EU, and organised by the Norwegian Coastal Administration (NCA), was conducted over three days and involved 600 people and 30 vessels.
The exercise scenario involved a simulated collision between a chemical tanker and an oil tanker, which resulted in oil and ammonia gas leakage in an environmentally sensitive area in Norway’s Telemark county.
“Good coordination across neighboring countries and various organizations is essential to respond swiftly and capably to major spill incidents. Indeed, multi stakeholder efforts to conduct joint spill exercises like SCOPE 2017 will help to improve our spill response strategies,” said Johan Marius Ly, NCA’s Director of Emergency Response.
SCOPE 2017 comprised a full-scale ground deployment and incident management exercise. The NCA mobilized government, municipal and private resources, and requested international assistance to deal with the pollution incident.
“The SCOPE 2017 exercise is a good opportunity for us to hone our response strategies and share best practices,” added NCA’s Stig Walhstrøm, project manager for the exercise. “It enabled us to test ourselves and there’s been a high level of learning and competence sharing throughout the planning phase and actual exercise.”
Walhstrøm also pointed out that one of the key goals of the project is to forge critical national and international cooperation.
The SCOPE 2017 project is now entering the evaluation phase and is expected to continue until the end of 2018.
