Globally there are many more inland oil spills than marine incidents. The need for a speedy and effective response to a terrestrial spill is more likely than it is for the majority of marine spills that can be monitored without intervention. Serious impact to the environment and population can be far reaching and long lasting should the pollution reach surface water or even worse, the water table.

In 2016 we delivered a new three-day Inland Oil Spill Response course in the Middle-East to a group of Iraqi Government and Industry delegates. The course was designed to address the issues they faced earlier in the year following the loss of 50,000 bbls of crude oil into a major river.

The Inland Oil Spill Response course contains a balance of presentations, table-top exercises and a practical deployment. Environmental, stakeholder and response issues are covered, with particular attention paid to the client’s risks and capability. The published three-day course held in Southampton, follows the new design with a challenging river response exercise, tasks based on case studies, and a table-top exercise demanding strategic, environmental and logistical planning.