Fewer oil spills every year mean that the industry has commensurately less in-house experience of how to deal with them. Being able to determine that people’s expertise is kept current and that they are proficient at running a successful response is key. To do this Oil Spill Response have introduced a suite of competency standards.

Oil Spill Response has attended major incidents from the Amoco Cadiz, Piper Alpha, Exxon Valdez, Erika, Evoikos to the Hebei Spirit during our history of over 300 spill mobilisations. It is through these incidents that our expertise has been developed. Despite this wealth of experience, we remain keenly aware that our Members expect above all the reassurance that any response effort, no matter the size, is being managed by qualified and competent personnel.

To this end we have developed an Approved Competency Management System (ACMS) for which we have designed and implemented six occupational standards for oil spill response. These standards are accredited by the Offshore Petroleum Industry Training Organisation (OPITO), industry’s focal point for personnel development for the offshore energy sector.

The ACMS forms the primary basis for our internal mentoring, appraising and succession planning processes. People on this programme apply relevant knowledge and experience to develop the required skill sets and have to provide evidence of performance and knowledge to demonstate proficiency in handling tasks impacting the success of a response.


Why is competence important?

Oil Spill Response CEO Archie Smith puts it simply, “Responders today are less seen as responders and more as spill advisors.” A clearly defined competency matrix is key to the delivery of response and preparedness expertise.

Aligning the ACMS to the Incident Command System (ICS) structure used by most oil companies ensures that Oil Spill Response’s staff are able to fill positions within the client’s ICS structure and assures Members that incidents are handled proficiently allowing for core business activities to resume in the shortest time possible.