Regular and continuous training programmes and drill exercises were convened for personnel involved in the spill response. Different training programmes were designed for all levels of personnel, starting from the top management and ending in the operator levels, including government bodies, industries and the private sector.

The training courses covered all major aspects including the marine environment protection, operation, administration and media coverage.

The training workshops and courses were either IMO standard courses or those which were designed by MEMAC Experts who tailored them to RSA needs and requirements.

Training Statistics:
         During the period of 2003—2005, a number of 10 training programmes were convened, where the last ten years witnessed 29 theoretical and practical training programmes associated with Regional oil pollution drills. These training programmes varied in duration from two days to 15 days of continuous training, covering the following important subjects:

• Oil Pollution Combating for Operators, Supervisors and Administrators.
• Chemical Pollution Combating for Operators, Supervisors and Administrators.
• Beach Cleaning.
• Damage Assessment and Claim Procedures.
• Port State Control.      
• Trajectory Modeling. 
• Marine Environment High Risk Areas.

MEMAC Training Centre	Children Awareness
MEMAC Regional Training Centre Bahrain

During the years, MEMAC established its own Regional Training Centre which is located in Mina Sulman – Kingdom of Bahrain and successfully conducted several training courses in order to strengthen the Member States' capabilities and familiarization of personnel with different important issues related to the environment and the techniques of combating and cleaning up.

The different training courses are held upon the approval of ROPME Member State Council and continuously run in the Training Centre or in any of Member States.

All courses are conducted in co-operation with different recognized experts, international firms and organisations, mainly the IMO which spares no efforts to assist in this field.

Policy: From course to course, MEMAC upgrade its courses to tailor them to the Regional requirements. This is achieved via opinion questionnaires from the participants, different technical meetings and different incidents occurred in the Region.

The courses can be briefed as follows:

- National and Regional Contingency Planning
This includes a table-top exercise, items of National and Regional Contingency Planning, etc. Usually the classroom courses are followed by a live exercise where participants are introduced to different types of equipment and how to use them.

Normally this Course is given in three different categories:
  IMO Level - 1 for Operator Level
  IMO Level – 2 for Supervisory Level
  IMO Level – 3 for Senior Management Level

One of MEMAC Live Combating Exercises
Theoretical and Practical Exercise

Each of these courses covers the following subjects:

Level – 1 for Operator Level 5 - day course duration to cover:

- Course Introduction and Administration 
- Overview of Oil Spill Response 
- Physical Properties 
- Health and Safety 
- Response Organization and Control Strategies 
- Contingency Planning Overview 
- Environmental Impacts of Oil 
- Oil Containment Booms 
- Failures of Containment Booms 
- Boom Selection 
- Deployment, Recovery and Configurations of Oil Containment Booms
- Oil Skimmers 
- Deployment and Operation of Various Types of Skimmers
- Transfer, Storage and Transportation of Recovered Oil 
- Demonstration of Equipment, Storage and Maintenance
- Use of Dispersants and other Combating Techniques
- Use of Absorbing Materials 
- Shoreline Clean Up 
- Practical exercise on Booms and Skimmers 
- Storage, Maintenance and Cleaning of Equipment
- Oil Sampling 
- Practical Exercise, Shoreline evaluation and cleanup
- Paper Exercise
- Course Evaluation 
- Issue Course Certificates 

Level –2 for Supervisor Level - 5 day course duration to cover:

- Course introduction
- Overview of spill response
- Introduction to Strategies of Oil Spill Response 
- Oil Spill Behavior, Fate and effects
- Contingency Planning
- Response Management
- Spill Assessment
- Operation Planning
- Containment and protection
- Exercise - Spill Assessment
- Exercise debrief. Review of previous day activities
- Dispersants
- Recovery of oil
- Shoreline Cleanup
- In Situ Burning and other Techniques
- Demonstration of Equipment, Storage and Maintenance
- Exercise Recovery
- Exercise debrief. Review of previous day activities
- Health and Safety
- Exercise Shoreline Cleanup
- Exercise debrief
- Transfer Storage and Disposal
- Media relations
- Exercise Media relations
- Exercise debrief. Review of previous day activities
- Evidence Gathering and documentation
- Command and Control, Communication, Information 
- Response Management
- Liability and Compensation
- Case histories
- Response Deactivation
- Post Incident debrief
- Exercise Response Management
- Exercise debrief. Review of previous day activities
- Exercise Briefing with Level 1 Course
- Witness Practical Exercise
- Exercise Full response
- Exercise Debrief
- Course review
- Course evaluation
- Issue Course Certificates

Level – 3 for Managerial Level - 3 days course duration to cover:

• Course Introduction 
  • Video Introduction – Working Together- 11 min.
    
  • Causes, fate and effects of spilled oil 
    
  • Contingency Planning 
    
  • Video – Assessment of risk - 3 min.
    
  • Tiered Response
    
  • National Contingency Planning in the Region introduced by the participants along
  • with discussion
    
  • Oil Spill Strategy 
    
  • Video – Response Strategies – 4 min.
    
  • Communication and media issues 
    
  • Regional Co-operation within the ROPME Region 
    
  • International co-operation and legal framework 
    
  • Case Study
    
  • Essential Requirements
    
  • Liability compensation and cost recovery 
    
  • Video – Liability and Cost Recovery – 3 min
    
  • Spill Management, Roles and Responsibilities 
    
  • Participants witness Practical Exercise
    
  • Measures of success 
    
  • Measures of response 
    
  • Termination of response 
    
  • Group Table Exercise 
    
  • Questions and answers/Action List

  Advance Planning

  * OIL SPILL EQUIPMENT, OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE TRAINING   COURSE
  
  This three day designed course introduced the Safety aspect, maintenance and running the combating equipment. Part of this course is theory and most of it is practical designed for the operator level.

   

  Combating Exercise Carried out by MEMAC in different Member  State for familiarization.

  For this purpose, MEMAC possesses its own equipment for the training. Also, some of the equipment, which is not available, has been obtained by borrowing it from different sources. 
  The course programme can be briefed as follows:
  
  Day One

  Course Introduction and Safety briefing
  Oil Spill Equipment – Skimmers, Booms, Dispersants - Theory of Operation and the Limitations of each facility.
  Visit to the site and operation of skimmer in tank.
  Boom deployment from the dockside, skimmer operation in the sea from the dock.
  
  Day Two

  - Discussion on previous day activities
  - Introduction to second day activities with detailed plan of the proposed at sea operation
  - Proceeding to the vessel and fit/load the side sweep system on to the vessel and the JBF Skimmer
  - Proceeding to the sea with the vessel for deployment of the skimmer
  - Demonstrating the principals and the logistical support needed for effective operations
  - Return to dockside to prepare equipment for the next exercise on the following day and maintenance instructions
  - Return to the Centre for de-briefing and preparation for the third day exercise.
   

  Day Three

  - Introduction for the previous day activities, objectives and program - Proceed to the vessel and then to the sea - Deploy skimmer and boom to demonstrate different techniques for maneuvering, deploying and recovering boom and most effective skimmer operations - Return to the Centre - Maintenance instructions on de-contamination issues - Question and Answer session - Presentation of certificates and closing remarks - End of the course.

  Maintenance Training

  

   

  DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONAL GUIDELINES FOR POLLUTION DAMAGE ASSESSMENT AND REGIONAL MANUAL FOR COMPENSATION CLAIMS

  MEMAC works with Experts as well as the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (IOPC Fund) in order to make the Guide and the Manual available to its Member States.

   

  	These two fields definitely need qualified personnel to carry out this task. A workshop designed to strengthen the capabilities of personnel is carried out frequently in co-operation with IOPC Fund, NOAA (USA) and independent experts.
  Sampling Training

  Note: The Regional Manual for Compensation Claims can be downloaded from the publication section of the Website.

   

  CHEMICAL HAZARDOUS WORKSHOP
  
  As a result of rapid development in the last few years in the Region towards the investment in the petrochemical industries and as the activities in the field of chemicals and their transportation have expanded widely, the Organization Council assigned to MEMAC to start looking into the subject seriously for environment and human protection. So, the first training workshop was conducted on the 30th April 2001, where MEMAC introduced the threat of the chemicals and different models existing worldwide in dealing with chemicals.
  
  Further, there would be a sequence of courses in this field.
  
  The first course was conducted in co-operation with UNEP (ROWA-Bahrain), AEA Technology (UK) and Applied Science Associates Ltd (ASA) specialists.

  The programme was as follows:
  
  - Addressing Chemical and Other hazardous Substance Spill Incidents
  - Legislative Background
  - The Planning and Response Dilemma – Differences between Oil and Chemical Spills
  - Key Decision Processes – Planning and Emergency Spill Response
  - The Role of Software Tools
  - CHEMMAP Model Overview
  - The Chemical Fates Model
  - GIS Data Management Interface
  - Environmental Data
  - CHEMMAP Model Overview continued
  - Chemical Databases – Internal Model Characteristic
  - Database and External Information Support Databases e.g. CHRIS, BIG and CHEMCARE
  - Air Plume Model and Biological Model
  - Stochastic Model: Probabilities, Mean and Worst Case Exposures
  - Toxicological Database
  - Natural Resource Damage Assessment
  - APPELL in Ports and Terminals
  - CHEMMAP Model Applications
  - Examples: Planning Support and Ecological Risk Assessment
  - Examples: Emergency Spill Response Support
  - Example: Model Application for the ROPME Sea Area
  - Introduction to the National Chemical Emergency Centre and its role in international oil and chemical spill response
  - Information requirement during chemical spills
  - Difference  between chemical and oil spills
  - 24 hours information and specialist advice
  - The need for validated models
  - Models and debases developed and used by NCEC
  - Emergency Response during marine chemical spills
  - Example of three recent marine chemical incidents
  - Live demonstration of multilingual support                        

  

   

  TRAJECTORY MODEL
  
  ROPME and MEMAC work closely in this field in co-operation with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in preparing data for the model. A sample model has been prepared which is in use by MEMAC Centre, Member States and some oil industries. The system has been utilized in many incidents successfully.
  

  MEMAC will continue its work towards upgrading the system as well as the training.

  The new model OASIS had been handed over to all the ROPME Member States during 2007 with on site training carried out by the BMT specialist.
  
  

  The Workshop subjects for the earlier model are as follows:
  - Introduction to Trajectory Modeling
  - Participants to load maps for their respective regions with bathymetry data
  - Participants to generate wind files from weather forecasts
  - Run tide software to compute wave heights
  - Lecture on oceanography to ROPME Sea Area
  - Participants to calculate current patterns for their respective regions using NOAA software
  - Commence running NOAA Trajectory Model
  - Complete running trajectory model for different spill scenarios
  - Display output and uncertainty estimate using NOAA software
  - Discuss oil weathering behavior and use NOAA fate and behavior model
  - Using NOAA calculators for dispersant and skimmer effectiveness
  - Workshop Discussion and evaluation of models.

  Additional to the above the new OASIS model dedicated for the Region had been introduced along with its training package to each individual Member States on site training.
  
  Beside these courses, MEMAC has also conducted some specialized courses which are carried out whenever requested by Member States and the Organization Council. An example of these courses is the Oil Spill Aerial Surveillance Workshop and Exercise.

   

  AERIAL SURVEILLANCE WORKSHOP AND EXERCISE
  A live exercise was conducted in Bahrain, on 6th - 8th May, 2002. Satellites were involved in this exercise to provide images for the three continuous days. Also, an airplane and helicopter were involved to carry the participants and different surveillance equipment where all images gathered and tested by the participants.
  
  At the same time there were some participants who stayed for three days in the middle of the ROPME Sea Area combating the intentional oil spills which were made for this exercise.
   

  Aim of Workshop
  
  The aim of the Workshop, which included a live at-sea exercise, was to provide opportunity for both government and industry personnel from the ROPME Sea Area to study all aspects of the problems of casualty and operational spillages of oil in the area from off-shore installations as well as from shipping. Especial emphasis was placed on the role of surveillance aircraft in such operations against the background of current legislation and regulation as well as the need for close co-operation and possibly joint operations among neighboring states.
  
  The Workshop was conducted in informal style with the aim of achieving high audience participation and providing full opportunity for the discussion of local conditions, the exchange of personal experience and the study of case histories.

  
  
  The programme contained the following subjects:
  
  - Types of oil pollution
  - Oil Composition and Analysis
  - Physical and Chemical Behaviors of spilled oil
  - Assessment of oil and hydrocarbons in ROPME Sea Area
  - Visual Observation of spilled oil
  - The role of aircraft in oil pollution operations
  - The role of satellites and other techniques used in the remote sensing of spilled oil
  - Maritime Surveillance with combined use of satellite and aircraft
  - Briefing on exercise
  - Over the sea exercise and post flight de-brief
  - Discussion of exercise results – All participants
  - Ecological sensitivity to dispersant spill combating methods
  - Data analysis in oil pollution surveillance and modeling techniques
  - Laws and Regulations concerning oil pollution
  - International Co-operation – the Bonn Agreement
  - Airborne Radar Oil Pollution Surveillance of the ROPME Sea Area.
  
  

  * THE PORT STATE CONTROL

  Studying and investigating each and every oil pollution incident has led the Center to the Port State Control system. Most, if not all, of the incidents occurred within the ROPME Sea Area are caused by the sub-standard vessels trading within the Region.
  
  MEMAC in co-operation with GCC Secretariat and the IMO started tackling this point and many technical meetings were held which resulted in executing the Port State Control MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) for ROPME Region.

  
  Meantime, MEMAC started its training programme with the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The main objectives of this lengthy course of 12 days were to train the Member States personnel how to deal with different vessels and enforce the different Conventions and Protocols.

  The course introduced the following subjects:

  Port State Control Practical Training

  - Course Introduction.
  - Introduction to IMO and PSC.
  - Overview of SOLAS
  - MARPOL 73/78
  - ILO
  - STCW 
  - Load Line, Tonnage
  - Col. Regls, Deficiencies
  - ISM Code
  - Review of ship in dry dock
  - Overall review of course
  - Panel Discussion
  - Assessment
  - Introduction to IMO and PSC.
  - Procedures of Port State Control.
  - Overview of SOLAS (Contd.).