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Crisis management
11 January, 2007
Tullow operates a 24/7 on-call crisis management system and conducts
an annual programme of training and simulation exercises for the Crisis
Management Team (CMT). During 2006, this team participated in 11 ‘live’
training events. Each exercise provides the opportunity to test our
systems and for the teams to practice their skills in a controlled
environment. Feedback is gathered to continually improve performance.
Training was also held for the CMT telephone media response people,
including an exercise with real journalists. The priority for Tullow is to
ensure the preparedness of our teams and systems in the event that we
need to mobilise the CMT in response to an incident. These exercises
are designed to test the ability of the crisis management team, the
preparedness and robustness of the crisis management plan and the
effectiveness of the high-tech crisis management facilities at the Group’s
London office. Our goal is to be proactive, prompt and effective in our
response to any serious incident involving any Tullow operations.
On Thursday, 11 January, 2007, Tullow’s
CMT was mobilised to deal with a situation
with potentially major implications for the
Group’s business.
Late in the afternoon that day, the control
room on the ConocoPhillips-operated
Murdoch platform in the SNS received
a report that a 4,500 tonne commercial
vessel had suffered engine failure and was
drifting without power in a westerly force
10 gale, resulting in strong seas and severe
weather conditions.
A quick assessment of the situation
concluded that there was potential for
a collision between the vessel and the
unmanned Boulton platform where Tullow
has an equity interest, and accordingly,
production was shut down there promptly
at 16:00.
The vessel initially deployed its anchor to
arrest its rate of drift, but this was judged
to present a significant risk to several major
sub-sea gas pipelines and was abandoned.
As a consequence, the vessel continued to
drift and it became apparent that there was
a potential collision risk with the manned
Murdoch platform complex, which is the
gas transportation hub through which all
the Caister Murdoch System (CMS) gas
passes, including the Schooner and Ketch
production from Tullow.
In response to the increasing risk to the
Murdoch platform, at 18:15, 20 people were
evacuated by the RAF to nearby facilities
including the Tullow-operated Ensco 101.
A skeleton crew of 10 remained to complete
the full shut down of the complex. These
people were evacuated at 21:30. By 22:00
it was apparent that the vessel had missed
the Murdoch platform. The situation was
monitored very closely and around midnight
the vessel passed a few hundred metres
north of the Caister platform and out of
immediate danger to facilities in the area.
Tullow supported the ConocoPhillips
emergency response from its nearby
facilities and mobilised the Crisis
Management facility in London as a
precaution, should the situation deteriorate.
On the morning on 12 January, crews were
remobilised onto the Murdoch complex and
the process of restarting systems began.
On 12 January, the Murdoch field and CMSIII
Northern fields were restored to production.
Satellite crews were mobilised and
production from the Boulton, Caister and
Munroe fields was restored on 13 January.
28 Tullow Oil plc Corporate and Social Responsibility Report 2006