IEA holds 9th Emergency Response Exercise

The International Energy Agency (IEA) conducted its 9^th emergency response exercise (ERE) from 28-29 June 2018. As part of the IEA’s mandate to promote oil security, ERE’s are held on a biennial basis, supported by training and coordination activities that take place over the course of the year. Last week’s exercise featured IEA member countries along with IEA Association countries Thailand and Morocco, as well as Croatia, Latvia and Slovenia.

The purpose of the ERE is to train country delegates on matters related to the IEA co-ordinated emergency response system. Participants are guided through hypothetical disruption scenarios to help familiarise participants with the main components of the IEA response system, as well as the key trends and risk factors impacting the global oil market.

Previous EREs have simulated major disruptions to global oil supplies, ranging from large-scale natural disasters to geopolitical conflicts. Participants watch the details of the simulated situation unfold through a series of realistic news clips, which are followed by discussion on possible courses of action. The detailed, hypothetical scenarios are carefully developed to accurately portray, in real-time, the effects of a major supply disruption.

Since the creation of the IEA, there have been three collective actions: in the build-up to the Gulf War in 1991; after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita damaged offshore oil rigs, pipelines and oil refineries in the Gulf of Mexico in 2005; and in response to the prolonged disruption of oil supply caused by the Libyan Civil War in 2011.