MOL Tabletop Drill Prepares for Major Offshore Incident
- Scenario: Fire in bulkship engine room, vessel runs aground -
May 23, 2014
TOKYO - Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL; President: Koichi Muto) today announced that, under cooperation of the 6th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters of Japan Coast Guard, the company conducted a tabletop drill based on a scenario in which fire occurred in the engine room on a bulk carrier while under way at Kudako channel in Inland Sea, resulting in the vessel going aground. The vessel is managed by an overseas third-party ship management company.
The drill was held on Thursday, May 22, with the goal of strengthening MOL's emergency response structure, which is based on the MOL Group Corporate Principles-protecting the environment by maintaining strict, safe operation and navigation standards. The exercise was also designed to ensure the necessary response and smooth, precise communications that are so critical in an event such as fire in engine room and running aground of an MOL-operated vessel, which is managed by an overseas third-party ship management company.
Main participants included the 6th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters of Japan Coast Guard, MOL President Muto, executives, and relevant divisions, which teamed up to organize an Emergency Control Headquarters, and the third-party ship management company, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement.
Under the drill scenario, fire occurred in the engine room of the MOL-operated bulk carrier while under way in the Kudako channel area of the Inland Sea. Then, the main engine was stopped, and the vessel faced possible grounding.
Immediately after receiving an initial report, MOL established an Emergency Control Headquarters, began first-response measures and procedures-information gathering, communications among the concerned parties, and directions and instructions to the vessel-and held a joint media response drill.
The company continues to sharpen its group-wide emergency response readiness throughout the MOL Group and its fleet, by sharing know how accumulated in these emergency table top drills, and by sharing points to improve, which were discovered in this drill.