The International Well Control Forum reported Tuesday that it is unveiling a new syllabus and training regime based on recommendations from oil and gas producers that are a direct result of the Macondo disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
The IWCF, which sets international training standards for well control, said it worked with the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (OGP) on recommendations to enhance existing well control training, examination and certification. The new syllabus and programs are designed to deliver a step-change in competence, it added.
The IWCF has launched new subjects within key areas identified as root cause findings from major incidents. It has also introduced role-specific training so that the learning is more relevant to individual roles rather than the current more generic approach.
Training programs will now have five levels through which people will progress in order to ensure that the training fits specific roles within the well control profession.
In a briefing to Rigzone last week ahead of Tuesday's announcement, IWCF Chief Executive Officer David Price said:
"Basically, there are more levels and a broader range of people within those levels who were not being targeted before.
"So we now have levels one, two, three, four and five. Particularly levels two, three and four are intended to be progressive. You cannot just jump in at level four."
Price explained that previously people with a particular background could jump ahead in their training at a higher level but that this would no longer be the case.
"To make it progressive is completely new to the industry and should have a great effect," he said.
"It's reflective of people's roles within those individual training levels. So it really ought to have a major effect on the prevention of well control incidents."
