Under the patronage of Sfax Governorate, a Regional Workshop on Oiled Shoreline Cleanup and Tier 1 Oil Spill Response exercise and Emergency Evacuation Drills code named “Skhira” were held on 10-11 October 2017, in Sfax and TRAPSA Terminal in SKhira in Tunisia.
The event was jointly organized by the Mediterranean Oil Industry Group (MOIG), the Company of Transport by Pipelines in the Sahara (TRAPSA) and the Centre of Documentation, Research and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution (Cedre).
The event gathered National and International attention with over 125 personnel from MOIG Members, Various Ministries, Local Authorities, Agencies, Manufacturer, shipping companies and experts such as : TRAPSA, APO, Dragon Oil, Eni Tunisia, MEDCO Energi, DESMI Ro-Clean, DNO Tunisia, ETAP, NOC, OMV Tunisia, SNDP, SEREPT, Shell Upstream Tunisia, TANKMED, TPS, ZN Energy, ANM, SMTRM, Ministry of National Defence, Ministry of Energy&Mines and Renewable Energy, Ministry of Local Affairs and Environment, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Finance, National Marine Guard, Border Police, Merchant Marine, ANPE, ANGED, ONPC, GCT and SEPT.
To oversee the management of the event, an Exercise Steering Committee “ESC” was formed and composed of representatives from TRAPSA, MOIG and Cedre.
The ESC held a series of meetings alternating between the Terminal and Headquarter of TRAPSA to define the exercise scale, scenario, combating strategies, roles and responsibility of each participant, designation of the exercise management and operations
The main objective of the ES was to track the development process of the exercise to ensure appropriate and managed integration between participants and thus also the success of the event.
During the first workshop session, TRAPSA gave a brief introduction on its background and activities, Tier 1 capability, Skhira exercise scenario and strategies for combating the oil spill.
MOIG delivered a presentation on the organizations framework and methodology developed for evaluation of Skhira exercise.
Cedre projected a series of videos presenting its background and main activities.
During the second workshop session, Mr Arnaud Guéna, Cedre Deputy Director performed a training course on Oiled Shoreline Cleanup according Preparedness for Oil-Polluted Shoreline Cleanup and Oil Wildlife interventions-POSOW Project manual procedures including General principals of Cleanup, Cleanup Techniques, Worksite Organization, waste Management and presentation of the practical exercise.
The second day was dedicated to deployment of Oil Spill Response equipments in water and Shoreline Cleanup. The exercise scenario was selected from TRAPSA Oil Spill Contingency Plan and consisted in the simulation of an oil spill due to flexible blowout during the loading operations of one oil tanker accosted in the Post N°1 in the jetty. The quantity of the spill was estimated between 15 to 20 m3. Some of which reached the shoreline and sensitive areas due to currents and winds leading the activation on TRAPSA Oil Spill Contingency Plan.
The water exercise comprised a full scale oil spill response equipments deployment (400 meters fence boom, skimmer and Floatable Storage Tank) and Mobilization of TRAPSA Marine assets( Shkira Pilotin, Khenaies 1,2,3 Boats and Douleb Tug) provided by 02 response teams Onshore and Off Shore to contain and recover the oil spilled product.
At the same time, an emergency evacuation drill was performed by HSE and Medical teams of one injured person from the onshore response team slipped on the jetty during the recovery of fence boom. All the actions were controlled by the exercise incident management team who were located in the Emergency Operations Center at TRAPSA Harbor Muster.
The Oiled Shoreline Cleanup Exercise was performed on the side of the beach by the shoreline cleanup response team; assisted by Mr Arnaud Guéna; Expert from Cedre. The exercise included shoreline survey, worksite organization, manual collection of debris, high pressure cleanup and effluent recovery, decontamination and equipment re-packaging.

About 60 delegates from Tunisia and the Mediterranean Region positioned in the Harbor Muster Control Room, Jetty, Shkira Pilotine Douleb Tug and in the shoreline observed in real time the first hands and action-packed oil spill exercise, Emergency Evacuation drill and shoreline cleanup Exercise.
The general feedback was highly positive and the participants are to be congratulated for their efforts and professionalism during all exercises stages. The overall average score was 7.9/10. According to the methodology and scoring principals. This score indicated that most objectives were achieved however there is room for some improvements.
The MOIG Management Committee Members would like to thank TRAPSA for its warm welcome and kind hospitality and for mobilizing their resources and as well as Cedre for providing technical support to TRAPSA through the MOIG.