COAST GUARD START AN OIL SPILL SIMULATED EXERCISE

Today, (4th of December, 2017) Sri Lanka Coast Guard (SLCG) commenced a week-long simulated exercise on Oil Spill Management based on its experiences in managing oil spills in the island. The aim of the exercise is to self-evaluate SLCG capacity and capability to undertake an oil spill management in open seas using the newly acquired OPV SLCG Suraksha as the Command and Control Platform. As the first day of the exercise, personnel who were trained in Oil Spill management either abroad or in-country shared their knowledge and refreshed their learning using items in the inventory.

The simulated exercise is conducted off Dikovita and for next four days various aspects of Oil Spill will be tested at open seas using various types of craft and equipment’s. The ship’s crew of “SLCG Suraksha”, personnel from Sri Lanka Coast Guard, Sri Lanka Navy and Sri Lanka Air force will be participating in this exercise as it is planned to simulate a Vertical Replenishment (VERTREP) using a Bell 212 Helicopter of the SLAF in this multi-dimensional exercise. To simulate the Oil, Styrofoam bubbles are planned to be used and M/S Richard Pieris & Company Ltd had associated with SLCG in this aspect by providing the quantity of regiform bubbles for the simulated exercise.