The First Virtual OPR Drills
The first virtual emergency management drills on oil pollution response (OPR) have been conducted by the AMSMA. The drills were an international event due to the participation of response forces from Russia, Finland and Estonia in the development of cooperation between their emergency capabilities and facilities in OPR operations in the Gulf of Finland.
The Academy has organized video conferencing and integration of anticrisis training centres in St Petersburg, Kotka and Tallinn into unified net to provide joint work of oil spill response headquarters, on-line data exchange and coordination of decision making in OPR operations.
The drill purpose is to test and perform technical capabilities of the integrated Anticrisis centres established in the Makarov Training Centre (St Petersburg, Russia), Kymenlaakso Polytechnic Institute (Kotka, Finland) and Estonian Maritime Academy (Tallinn, Estonia) and to estimate efficiency of their use for preparation of specialists from other countries for joint operations in real oil spill combating conditions.
About 60 journalists from different European countries have attended the presentation in the anticrisis centre in Kotka (Finland) July 1, 2006. The visit of European journalists has been organized by the Government of Finland headed by the Head of the EU Secretariat and representative of the Cabinet of the Prime Minister of Finland Antti Peltomaki.
