C V Subba Rao
Chris Gregory, General Manager, ECM/Hudson Maritime Services of USA, with representatives from various shipping companies.
Sanmar Shipping hosted the 2001 Spill Management Team (SMT) Table Top Exercise (TTX) on September 10th and 11th conducted by Chris Gregory, General Manager of ECM/Hudson Maritime Services of USA, representing some of the
Indian ship owners as Qualified Individual (QI). The US Coast Guard regulations for California State require such Oil Spill Contingency Exercises, as part of the US Government’s Oil Pollution Act, 1990 to be conducted in Ship Owner’s offices across the world by authorized representatives located in the US. The exercise was held at Sanmar’s Corporate Office and the participants included senior
representatives of companies such as Varun Shipping, Chowgule Steamships of Mumbai, India Steamship Company of Calcutta and India Cements Ltd. (Shipping Division) of Chennai, besides Sanmar Shipping.
One of the exercises featured a mock ship flying the Indian flag at the New York harbour, spilling oil due to an accident. The activity considered issues such as environmental damage, media management, public perception, US legislations, etc., and included telephone calls and faxes relayed to various agencies in the US, ranging from the
Coast Guard, the media (including print and TV Networks), the environmentalists, etc., using ISD lines located in the conference room, with the delegates playing the role of the ship owner. The entire exercise took place from 0030 hrs till 0330 hrs New York time.
Typically, an improper response could cost an owner up to billions of dollars, and hence the exercise was seen as highly informative and combative, as it was simulated to a “Real Life” situation for a ship owning company located in India. All the participants were happy to have attended such an informative and educative programme. A sumptuous lunch was organized in the Executive Dining Room of the Sanmar Corporate Office for all the delegates on both the days.
(The author is Assistant Vice President-Technical, Sanmar Shipping Limited).