21 September 2023, The Kerkennah Tier 1 Oil Spill Response Exercise N°2 was jointly organized by Thyna Petroleum Services (TPS) ; member ; and the Mediterranean Oil Industry Group (MOIG) in Cercina field in Kerkennah Island-Tunisia.

The theoretical part was held in Ennakhla Hotel in Kerkennah Island in which TPS gave an introduction on its activities, the exercise objectives, the oil spill scenario, the combatting strategy and safety induction. MOIG delivered a presentation on the evaluation form that was used by observers to assess the exercise.

To oversee the management of the exercice, an Exercise Steering Committee “ESC” was formed and composed of representatives from TPS and MOIG. Seven (07) “ESC“ meetings were performed to define and discuss the scale, the oil spill scenario, the designation of the management, the check of OSR equipments, the logistics in order to track the development process of the exercise.

The main objectives of the exercise were the following:

· Notification: To test the notifications procedures identified in the Oil Spill Contingency Plan;

· Operations: To demonstrate the ability to coordinate or direct operations related to the implementation of response action contained in the respective emergency plan;

· Containment: To demonstrate the ability of the response team to contain the oil slick in the containment area;

· Recovery: To demonstrate the ability of the response team to deploy skimmers into the containment area;

· Safety Affairs: To demonstrate the ability to monitor all field operations and ensure compliance with safety standards.

A check of OSR equipments and a pre-exercise were respectively held on 26 January and 14 September 2023 in Cercina field.

The event gathered over 30 participants from TPS, ETAP, PANORO, Civil Protection, NOC, Occupational Medicine of Sfax, Zawia oil Refining Company, Brega Oil Marketing Company and Sirte Oil Company. Evaluators have been instalted in the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) and the barge to assess all the exercise objectives.

The exercise comprised a full scale oil spill response equipment deployment of 100 meters fence boom, a weir skimmer and fastank. Two marine units Sea Tiger vessel and Farajallah boat were mobilized to assist the Emergency Response Team in the deployment of the fence bomm and the weir skimmer.

The overall average score of Kerkennah N°2 exercise was 8.5/10 ; indicating that most objectives were achieved slightly above expectation. The general feedback was highly positive and the Management and Response Teams are to be congratulated for their efforts, high motivation and professionalism shown during the exercise. According to scoring principal, the evaluation revealed areas ranging from good to excellent. It has been recommended to consider Kerkennah Tier 1 Oil Spill Response Exercise N°2 as a reference for the future exercises.

The MOIG Management Committee Members would like to thank TPS representatives for their warm welcome, hospitality and high level of cooperation shown during the development of the exercise.