UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE - Wind Energy Network

UXO
SPONSORS OF Unexploded Ordnance
Be prepared
NCOE takes
a look at UXO IN
Crisis
Management
At NCOE our goal is to generate business value for clients by delivering projects, that
are efficient in both capital investment and long-term operation.
Synergies
NCOE’s previous articles highlighted the
synergies between the mature oil and
gas industry and the offshore wind farm
industry.
Offshore wind
Crisis Management (CM) is another area
whereby the wind farm industry can
learn much from the Oil and Gas industry
without having to start a fresh. Like so
many other things in industry this has
been developed through lessons learned
over the years. Although some would say
the two industries are very different with
offshore platforms have personnel living
on them and a hydrocarbon inventory.
However, after further investigation one
will realise that crisis management is on
a wider scale, about the management of
an incident’s potential ability to impact
company reputation, operability, viability or
earning power.
Recent banking crisis
We may all remember the recent event
unrelated to safety which was the IT
problem RBS, Natwest and Ulster bank
customers had in June this year, where
millions of customers couldn’t get access
to their money or their accounts for several
days due to a software upgrade going
wrong. This impacted at least three of the
aforementioned categories. The size of
the problem was on a scale far bigger and
for a longer time than has ever happened
at any British bank since they went
computerised. I am sure the banks at
the heart of the matter have now revised
whatever crisis management procedure
they had before the incident.
UneXploded Ordnance
To return to the subject of the wind energy
and oil and gas industries, one of the
problems that can instigate CM is that
of UneXploded Ordnance, which is most
often encountered unexpectedly, during
construction of facilities, particularly when
excavation or dredging is underway.
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