International oil spill management company Aptomar has together with Transas developed the world’s most advanced oil spill combating simulator in close cooperation with the North Cape Maritime Training Centre in Honningsvåg, northern Norway.

The North Cape simulator centre has been upgraded to allow onshore and offshore personnel to train and exercise on remote sensing, vessel and equipment manoeuvring, plus sea-air-land tactical collaboration and management.

“This is the world’s most advanced oil spill combating simulator centre. It offers life-like training on all the operational parts of the combating value chain. By training in this environment, where situations and scenarios can be played and re-played, more oil can be combated, faster, and at a lower cost, during a real oil spill situation,” says Lars Solberg, founder and chief sales and marketing officer of Aptomar.

The oil spill combating simulator centre upgrade has been developed by Aptomar, and its partner Transas, with the support of Eni Norge, Statoil, Gdf Suez E&P Norge, OMV Norge and the Norwegian Coastal Administration, through a joint industrial project (JIP). The companies Rutter and Miros have supplied their oil spill detection systems for the simulator centre.

The North Cape Maritime Training Centre in Honningsvåg now contains the world’s only oil spill simulator where onshore and offshore personnel isolated or together, can train in the tools and stages of oil spill combating operations. In the simulator, users can train on remote sensing, vessel navigation, recovery, and onshore-offshore tactical collaboration and information sharing.

The oil spill combating simulator technology allows communication and tactical collaboration between onshore and offshore resources, detection and measurement of oil spills, choice and application of different combating methods and navigation of vessels and other assets. Aptomar’s tactical collaboration and management system (TCMS) is integrated with the simulator. To enhance its life-like capabilities, the simulator offers the possibility to connect the vessel simulator bridges to TCMS’ operation rooms worldwide, to train specifically on second line response and operation management.

“Until now, there has been limited opportunities for cost-effective hands-on training on remote sensing, mitigation and collaboration between onshore and offshore roles and resources for an oil spill combating operation. The North Cape simulator allows individuals or groups to develop this skillset without affecting an operator’s day-to-day operations,” says Lars Solberg.

The North Cape simulator centre and its training programmes will be qualified according to DNV GL’s SeaSkill certification.