Training in Algeria

Staff from Gazprom International, the USA drilling company Nabors Drilling, the international medical service ISOS and the Swiss airline StarAviation all took part in the liquidation of the "consequences" of a simulated emergency.

The scenario involved a worker at the drilling site "falling" from a height of four metres and "sustaining serious injuries". His "rescue" was coordinated in real time from three continents – North America, Europe and Africa – simultaneously.

The training session, in which around 50 well workers and office staff from the Hassi Messaoud production base took part, lasted for a total of five hours and included the full range of rescue measures, from administering first-aid on land to the air and ambulance evacuation of the victim to hospital.

The rescue operation was held to ascertain the strengths and weaknesses in the interaction between the partner organisations' management structures and to identify errors in the actions of participants at each stage of the process. Overall, it confirmed the validity of the "emergency" plan of action developed to "save the victim". During the session, skills such as team-working and effective interaction in an emergency were successfully honed.

In all of its projects the world over, Gazprom International endeavours to meet the most advanced international standards, including industrial safety standards. For this purpose, the company's specialists attend training courses on an annual basis. The courses are organised by the specialised training centre in Amsterdam, Gazprom International Training. Participants receive the required basic training on the typical dangers and risks associated with working on industrial sites both offshore and on land, learn universal safety models, and are drilled in the emergency response actions.

Thanks to the systematic, comprehensive programme aimed at guaranteeing the health and safety of Gazprom International employees, not a single accident has been registered at a production site since the company was established in 1998.

Gazprom International is currently in the third phase of geological exploration work at El Assel in the Berkine oil and gas basin in eastern Algeria.

So far, a large-scale programme of exploration work has been carried out within the area of the El Assel site: a 3D seismic survey (2,748 square kilometres), a 2D seismic survey (200 linear kilometres) and the processing and interpretation of the data obtained along with seismic data from previous years. The operator has drilled a total of four exploratory wells and one evaluation well, as a result of which, in 2010 and 2012, two new hydrocarbon deposits were discovered at the site. Within the site area is also a previously discovered oil and gas field, Zemlet Er Rekkeb.

In May 2014, construction of the RSH-5 exploratory well (4,091 metres) was completed. This is for delineation of the structure of Rhourde Sayah in northern El Assel.

Gazprom International joined the El Assel project in early 2009 with a 49% stake. 51% is held by Algeria's state oil and gas corporation Sonatrach.