Support Craft at Liquefied Gas Facilities - Principles of Emergency Response and Protection - Onshore (SIGTTO)

Support craft perform a vital role in assisting with safe operations and emergency response for liquefied gas carriers and facilities. The effectiveness of this service could be improved by a more up to date approach and an improved understanding of the hazards, barriers, credible scenarios and credible response strategies.

The information in this book is provided primarily for organisations involved in the transportation of liquefied gas cargoes, including support craft, facilities and ships. It may also be of assistance to regulators and government agencies. Suggested competency standards have been provided at Annex D to assist with the creation of training programmes for the crew of support craft.

This new publications from SIGTTO uses a risk assessment method and terminology, to explain the environment and define some example scenarios and response strategies.

All of the responses contained are based on the following order of priority: protection of life, the environment and property. Protection of life has been considered not only in the context of the ship and terminal staff involved in a cargo operation, but also to the emergency responders and the general public in the vicinity.

Evaluating a top event without understanding the design barriers built in to reduce risk may lead to an improbable conclusion.

SIGTTO is of the opinion that knowledge of the design basis for facilities and gas carriers, including typical credible (design) scenarios, may assist in the improvement of existing practice. This new publication therefore sets out to increase awareness of the philosophy behind the design, including the purpose and limitation, of equipment used. Appreciation of the credible scenarios should also assist the industry in carrying out more effective drills and exercises.