In the event of a fire or explosion, first-response firefighting and containment measures are extremely important to minimize harm within the effected refinery or complex, as well as external damage. As such, we focus efforts on training disaster prevention personnel. We believe that ongoing, repeated practical drilling (based on the fundamentals of firefighting theory) is crucial. For example, participants learn the basics of disaster prevention in lectures and practice handling actual equipment and extending fire hoses according to response plans. In particular, the Hokkaido Refinery, Chiba Complex, and Aichi Refinery conduct firefighting training with real fire in training facilities.
On September 20, 2019, Chiba Complex and Anegasaki Fire Station jointly conducted an integrated disaster-risk-reduction drill. Some 40 people, including the heads of local associations and Anegasaki fire brigades, visited the drill site to see a practical drill carried out on the assumption that a fire had broken out from the floating roof of naphtha tanks due to an earthquake. Visitors commented that they were impressed by the Complex’s risk management system and its employees’ swift, appropriate operations for disaster-risk reduction.
On September 20, 2019, Aichi Refinery conducted an emergency pier undocking drill for Apollo Energy, a large tanker owned by Idemitsu which had arrived at Isewan Sea Berth. This drill was intended to find out how to cope with a massive tsunami after a colossal Nankai Trough earthquake, and officials from the Fourth Regional Coast Guard Headquarters and the Nagoya Coast Guard Office visited the site to inspect the drill. Usually, three tugboats help a large tanker to leave the berth, but in this drill, which assumed the occurrence of an emergency, the Refinery’s team attempted to let the tanker leave the berth and sail by itself as two tugboats assisted. The exercise was completed in 15 minutes, five minutes less than expected in the drill procedures.
On June 5 and 6, 2019, in accordance with the Act on the Prevention of Disasters in Petroleum Industrial Complexes and Other Petroleum Facilities, 70 people from six member companies of Chukyo District Wide-Area Joint Disaster Risk Reduction Council and its seven partner companies joined the water spray drill held at the Aichi Refinery. This drill provided an opportunity for experienced members to impart the knowledge and skills they had acquired to younger members, thus creating a keener awareness of disaster prevention across generations.
The Safety, Environment & Quality Assurance Department maintains the Niigata Disaster Prevention Training Center. This facility provides training on an ongoing basis to many participants each year, not only from within the Company, but also from other companies in the industry. The training comprises scenarios based on fires occurring at different types of complex facilities and includes both theory (lectures) and practice (drills with real fires) to teach participants about first-response firefighting methods suited to the characteristics of oil fires in order to reinforce first-response firefighting systems at complexes. The training center has been widely praised as providing valuable experience and firefighting skills.